Good heavens, your Wonkette can barely keep up with the hijinx our moral police are getting themselves into, as they bedevil legislatures and statehouses nationwide. Seems they are hell-bent on sticking a finger into every possible pie — up to and including vagina pie! Take the Republican supermajority in the Virginia House of Delegates, for example, which just passed a bill requiring any lady wanting an abortion to first have a doctor determine the gestational age of her fetus and listen to its heartbeat. Okay, whatever, a little jelly on the belly, and then, wheeeeeeee, off to the Abortionplex? Um, NOT QUITE!
Virginia is actually talking about the kind of ultrasound that involves a dildo-type sonic boom-generator penetrating the vagina, in a sort of, well,completely non-optional fashion. The Virginian-Pilot explains:
The ultrasound requirement may evoke images of the abdominal sonograms standard in most pregnancies, fuzzy black and white pictures conjured by a wand passed across a woman’s stomach.
But those ultrasounds are ordinarily done fairly late in pregnancy. In the beginning, particularly the first weeks, an abdominal ultrasound may not be sensitive enough to detect anything.
That’s why doctors in many cases use a transvaginal ultrasound. In plainspeak, they insert a condom-covered probe into a woman’s vagina to obtain an image.
In order to satisfy the goals of the legislation – which includes a requirement that a doctor determine the gestational age of the pregnancy- a transvaginal ultrasound may be the only reliable course.
Not that valid medical reasons for transvaginal ultrasounds don’t exist. It’s just that, for supporters of this new bill, getting a chance to enforce clinical rape is now medical reason enough, thanks for asking!
If only there were some completely unqualified scrum of idiots to shed a little light on this topic…. OH LOOK:
The conservative Family Foundation hailed the ultrasound measure as an “update” to the state’s existing informed consent laws “with the most advanced medical technology available.”
Did you know, though, that this wonderful process of obtaining “informed consent” for an abortion actually involves not being able to refuse a Magic Wanding of one’s swimsuit area? It’s true! House Republicans voted down an amendment that would have allowed women to opt out of “unwanted vaginal penetration.”
Unwanted Vaginal Penetration. What a marvelous turn of phrase to enter America’s lexicon, in 2012! [WaPo/ARLnow via Hullabaloo; Virginian-Pilot]
I hate this world.