I’ve been reading up on this quite a bit due to a Facebook scuffle I saw yesterday were a woman who claimed to be pro-choice was defending the law, saying it wasn’t a big deal and didn’t understand why everyone was so pissed.
I was looking at a discussion on reddit, when I came across the following two comments on the story by someone with the user name “leylanna”
I was literally raped by a woman with one of these things. She assumed I was a loose whore because I was getting an abortion. When I cried for her to stop she literally asked me why I was crying. I can only imagine how many other women will be treated this way by overworked technicians who despise the new laws.
and
And that is what I could see happening over and over again. The worst part is that I was so distraught over everything I did t have the energy or strength to really do something about it and now years later it’s too late. That’s why this is so bad. The emotions with it all are not easy to deal with. So when something horrible happens on top of it, I doubt most woman would do anything about it. If they did they would have to publicly admit they had an abortion. What a fucked up situation and social stigma it really is.
This isn’t an angle I hadn’t fully considered before. I figured all these required pre-abortion ultrasound procedures were a way to make the person considering an abortion feel guilty and change their mind. I figured that an intrusive, invasive procedure like this being required was another way to discourage getting an abortion.
But more than that, I’ve been reading about people who have had this procedure done, and it turns out it sounds more horrifying than I had imagined it.
The vagina is spread apart and distended with a speculum, the probe is then inserted and moved around to obtain a high resolution image.
One of these things:
There is no necessity for this procedure, if they want a pre-abortion ultrasound done, they could easily have done it with a device that can be put on the belly.
I have four children, one where there were even complications with the pregnancy and my ex-wife NEVER had one of these used on her. The resolution on the “regular” ultrasound device was plenty high enough to produce pictures the doctors could use to determine the health of the fetus.
This can’t be constitutional. I don’t understand how the government can sanction having to have a phallic shaped device needlessly inserted into someone’s vagina in order to get a medical procedure done.
What about young children who became pregnant due to rape or incest? They are going to be further traumatized, hell not just young children, adults too.
Even in cases where rape was not involved and it was an unwanted/unexpected pregnancy, this adds another level of shame, and potentially a layer of trauma.
This is nothing more than punishment. Just like they want those who become pregnant to be punished for having sex by the result being a pregnancy, they want to punish those seeking an abortion by having a doctor shove a phallic shaped device into their vagina and moving it around to get a picture.
Don’t believe me?
Some democrats in Virginia proposed an amendment to the law that would require someone seeking a prescription to Viagra to have an anal probe ultrasound performed.
That measure was not added to the bill, also one Republican, Todd Gilbert, called abortions “matters of lifestyle convenience.”
Republicans in Virginia, I’m disgusted with you. You are filthy disgusting people, your “pro-life” rhetoric veils your true intentions so thinly.
