Archive for the 'Ultrasound Bill' Category

Asked at a press conference about Pennsylvania’s rendition of the anti-abortion bill that requires women to undergo an ultrasound prior to the termination of a pregnancy, the Keystone State’s Republican governor, Tom Corbett, told a reporter that he didn’t feel the legislation went too far because it “exterior not interior” and he wasn’t making women watch.

“I don’t know how you make anybody watch,” Corbett said. “Because you just have to close your eyes.”

Not surprisingly, this didn’t sit well with Democrats, who slammed Corbett for showing “a lack of understanding of medicine and women’s reproductive health issues.”

“It’s unthinkable that he would so casually dismiss this by advising women to just close their eyes,” said former Pennsylvania congressman Patrick Murphy. “Gov. Corbett’s comments are disturbingly offensive, insensitive and out of touch.”

Some 10 states are currently at varying states of debate over a similar ultrasound bill.

[wgal / think.]

How A Bill Becomes A Law of the Day: Meanwhile, in Virginia’s House of Delegates, Republican David Albo of Fairfax regales his colleague with a humorous anecdote about how his wife shot down his sexual advances after seeing his name attached to the ultra-controversial “trans-vaginal” ultasound bill.

And, before you ask, yes: He does play porn music for his fellow politicians before illustrating his “moves.”

[@thinkprogress.]

Follow Up of the Day: A day after Virginia lawmakers were compelled to pass a non-invasive version of the state’s controversial ultrasound bill, the full Virginia Senate voted this afternoon to table the equally contentious “personhood” bill, which would have defined life as beginning at conception.

A motion by Senators Thomas Norment (R-James City County) and Richard Saslaw (D-Fairfax County) to send the legislation back to committee passed by a measure of 24 to 14, meaning the bill can no longer be voted on this year.

Modeled after a Missouri law, the personhood bill would have conferred certain legal protections on fetuses, making the vast majority of abortions illegal after conception.

Despite amendments to protect contraception and in-vitro fertilization, Sen. Norment said he recognized that “there are more legal complexities to this issue than I was aware of.”

[pilot.]