Michele Bachmann (R-MN) has introduced a bill into the House of Representatives that would force all women considering an abortion to not only see an ultrasound but would require doctors to verbally describe the ultrasound, and make the cardiac activity both visible and audible. This is a first amendment violation that the Supreme Court has already deemed unconstitutional.
Bachmann, who has been so busy campaigning for president while drawing her government salary that she hasn’t even cast a single vote in Congress since August 1, apparently has time to use her position as a lawmaker to introduce legislation that will only serve to strengthen her bona fides with the radical religious right, and will do nothing to affect what she is now claiming as her destiny: the anti-choice, anti-gay warrior.
“Texas Governor Rick Perry proposed the same mandatory ultrasound bill in his state, making it part of a slate of ’emergency’ legislation he demanded the legislature pass immediately,” writes Care 2. “The bill was passed, then promptly challenged. Federal Judge Sam Sparks allowed the mandatory ultrasound itself to be left as an abortion restriction, but blocked the part of the law stating that every woman has to listen to the doctor explain fetal development and hear the fetus’s heartbeat, calling it a violation of freedom of speech to force doctors to provide the details and to force women to listen.
“The Supreme Court agreed, refusing to hear the case when state lawmakers tried to kick the ruling up to the higher court for appeal.”
Laura Bassett at The Huffington Post adds, “If the woman is between four and five weeks pregnant, the doctor has to perform a “transvaginal ultrasound” in order to hear the heartbeat, which involves a probe and can be physically uncomfortable for the woman.”
“It’s similar to a pelvic exam, which can come with discomfort for the woman, and it’s invasive,” said Dr. Nancy Stanwood, an obstetrician and board member of the health advocacy group Physicians for Reproductive Choice and Health. “It’s also medically unnecessary. Some politicians might see it as ideologically necessary, but it’s medically unnecessary, so the government telling you that you need to have one sounds ridiculous on many levels.”
The bill, the “Heartbeat Informed Consent Act of 2011,” is endorsed by a certified anti-gay hate group, Tony Perkins’Â Family Research Council.
Even the radical right wing press is nervous about this bill.
Steven Ertelt at Lifenews falsely writes that the Bachmann bill “would allow women a chance to see an ultrasound before they have an abortion.” Kind of like saying that mandatory drug sentencing allows felons to see the inside of a jail. It doesn’t “allow,” it requires. Big difference.
It’s extraordinarily disturbing that Bachmann has deemed it her duty to effectively work against the law — determined Supreme Court law — and extend the long arm of the federal government into the nation’s medical facilities, requiring physicians to work as her anti-abortion agents, while she sits back and tells the world that the anti-gay bullying so prevalent in her own Congressional district, as well as in every school across the nation, is not a federal issue.
Typical Republican who sees it their mission to invade a women’s right to choose but once a child is born, take no action whatsoever to protect it.
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