Early last year, Texas Republican Gov. Rick Perry declared the passage of a law requiring women seeking abortions to undergo sonograms an “emergency item” on the Legislature’s calendar. Despite the fact that the procedures are medically unnecessary, the Big Government Republicans who control the Texas Legislature passed the bill, and Gov. Perry signed it into law in May 2011, three months before he launched his bid for the GOP presidential nomination.
Earlier this month, after challenges to the law failed in court, the government’s ultrasound mandate — which includes the transvaginal ultrasounds that are so controversial now in Virginia — went into effect in Texas:
Texas began enforcing its version of the sonogram requirement last week, after the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a temporary ban and issued an opinion that the law is constitutional. While a lawsuit against the law makes its way through the courts, clinics are already reporting logistical difficulties. The measure requires a 24 hour waiting period between the sonogram and the abortion procedure, a requirement which was also included in the Virginia bill, which forces women to arrange for two days of medical appointments. (Both states allow women who must travel a significant distance to have the sonogram only two hours ahead.) However, in Texas, the doctor performing the abortion must also be the one to perform the sonogram. That requirement has produced many problems for clinics, as sonograms are often performed by other medical professionals. Virginia’s measure has no such requirement. Similarly, Texas law requires that women hear a description of the sonogram procedure, whether or not they want to, a caveat that isn’t in Virginia’s law.
Don’t think that makes Virginia’s law less stringent though: unlike Texas, the bill offers no exemption for victims of rape or incest, who would also have to have the transvaginal sonogram and then be asked if they want to hear descriptions of the fetus and listen to the fetal heartbeat. It will also mean victims of rape will be forced to have a probe inserted into their vagina. Only in cases of medical emergencies can the requirement be waived.
