Monday, April 30, 2012

virginia is not for vaginas



"This bill does not legally alter a woman's ability to make a choice regarding her pregnancy," the statement said. "It does, however, put Virginia in line with 23 other states that have some type of requirement that a woman be offered a view of an ultrasound before an abortion can be performed."
The bill is slated to go into effect on July 1.

BACKGROUND: Since the mid-1990s, several states have moved to make ultrasound part of abortion service provision. Some laws and policies require that a woman seeking an abortion receive information on accessing ultrasound services, while others require that a woman undergo an ultrasound before an abortion. Since routine ultrasound is not considered medically necessary as a component of first-trimester abortion, the requirements appear to be a veiled attempt to personify the fetus and dissuade a woman from obtaining an abortion. Moreover, an ultrasound can add significantly to the cost of the procedure.

this 'war on women' has been going on as long as charles manson has been hitting up the california parole board apparently with the same results.
at least manson has been active participant in his 'war on parole' and i got to watch!
and might i add, thank you thank you steven brill for creating courttv!
this shit is better than a double-feature at a drive-in, popcorn and all.
so, um, if there's a war, where are all the bodies?
surely if the uteri of the testosterone-challenged have been attacked since the 1990's, there is a death toll somewhere .
surely there would have been a journalist somewhere with a deep-throat connection in a war bunker getting "according to anonymous sources" information about the 'war on women'.
right?
with the exception of some SSS (super stupid shit) escaping from the mouths of some SSP (you figure this one out) the 'war on women' is as innocuous now as it was when it began under the clinton administration all those years ago.
 
below is a table outlining ultrasound requirements state by state. (disclaimer- this table from 2011; however, only differs from guttmacher, dated april 2012 (link below), in re to virginia and texas.)



HIGHLIGHTS:
 11 states require verbal counseling or written materials to include information on accessing ultrasound services.
 20 states regulate the provision of ultrasound by abortion providers.
 7 states mandate that an abortion provider perform an ultrasound on each woman seeking an abortion, and require the provider to offer the woman the opportunity to view the image.
 9 states require that a woman be provided with the opportunity to view an ultrasound image if her provider performs the procedure as part of the preparation for an abortion.
 5 states require that a woman be provided with the opportunity to view an ultrasound image.

*1(one) state- texas, must display and describe the ultrasound image; north carolina and oklahoma have similar mandates; however, both are pending judicial review. but! even this provision exists:
** according to guttmacher.org link:The law allows the woman to decline to view the image and in Texas the woman may decline to listen to the description under certain circumstances.

granted, there are 7 states that mandate the ultrasound is part of the abortive procedure; however, all 7 are only required to offer the opportunity to have a look.
at this point, our spread-eagle p.o.w invokes the geneva convention and says, "no thanks."
game over.

it should also be noted an ultrasound is not required for any reproductive counseling or consultation.
a woman is still free to gather as much information she chooses long before she decides to terminate a pregnancy. a woman is free to schedule an appointment with her obgyn or her general practitioner and just chat about her options - this is called a consultation and doctors everywhere still do them.
women are still free to walk into planned parenthood and speak with a reproduction counselor and ask as many questions as one can think of and walk away as informed as one chooses to be; there are pro-choice and pro-life organizations that offer services, and for godsakes, there's the freaking internet!
a woman does not schedule an abortion as if she were scheduling an oil change for her car.
as a woman i hope with all of my heart and all that makes me female, every woman faced with this situation puts a lot of thought into her options and ultimately into her decision.
as a woman, i find it offensive that a legislature assumes women deal with unwanted pregnancies with all the regard we give our order at a burger king drive-up window.

things to do today:
drop off books @ library
get an abortion
pick up dry cleaning

as a woman, i find it offensive that this 20 year old "war on women" didn't really piss off very many women until 2012 and not even until after a few meat headed politicians tried to legislate a church and lay down some new/old law on the united states of vaginas.
as an american, i find the use of the word war in this regard, offensive. politicians, the media, and angry women want to invoke the imagery of war, an image we are all too fucking familiar with, to equate a not-so-sudden assault on their reproductive choices. give me a break.
the only assault on  your crotch comes in the form of an offering and an opportunity- sounds more like manners than a declaration of war.
anyway all attempts by the states to further assault us with their damned ultrasound rules are under judicial review, and i'm pretty sure the new texas law will follow suit and end up before the court as well.

as previously noted, the ultrasound option has been around for quite some time.
lady soldiers, where have you been for the last 20 years?
perhaps you should get your head out of your cooter and pay attention to what befalls the entire human race and not just what exists between your legs.


cmk

ps- we could start by demanding safe birth control, viagra for women, and i would trade a thumb up my ass and a little coughing for the william wallace bed of torture that is my obgyn office.