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Msg. 39085 of 65535 |
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Political pressure grabbed this SOB by the throat.. Virginia governor Bob McDonnell in U-turn over controversial abortion bill Bob McDonnell requests amendments to bill, which now explicitly states that no woman will have to undergo a transvaginal ultrasound involuntarily Virginia governor Bob McDonnell has performed a U-turn on a controversial bill which would have forced women seeking first trimester abortions to undergo an invasive transvaginal ultrasound.
McDonnell had previously said he would sign the bill if it was passed by the general assembly. But faced with growing opposition, McDonnell released a statement on Wednesday minutes before the bill was debated in the House, in which he said that, after discussions with lawyers, physicians and legal experts, amendments were needed to "address various medical and legal issues which have arisen." Critics had pointed out that the bill, if passed in its original form, would have obliged doctors to carry out a procedure that risked breaking a state sex crime statute known as object sexual penetration. State lawmakers passed the amended bill on Wednesday afternoon. It now explicitly states that no woman will have to undergo a transvaginal ultrasound involuntarily. Instead, it requires women seeking an abortion to have an external, transabdominal ultrasound. The changes also include having a doctor ask the woman if she wants to see an image from the ultrasound rather than requiring a copy to be attached to her medical file. In his statement, McDonnell said: "Mandating an invasive procedure in order to give informed consent is not a proper role for the state. No person should be directed to undergo an invasive procedure by the state, without their consent, as a precondition to another medical procedure." But the revised legislation is still facing strong opposition, with campaigners expressing anger that it was passed at all. They said the ultrasound may be less invasive, but it is still an unnecessary medical procedure mandated by law, rather than at the discretion of doctors. ProgressVA, a progressive advocacy group that said it had helped to gather 33,000 signatures in Virginia for a petition against the bill, said it was "heartening to see lawmakers begin to take Virginians' voices seriously", but added: "Instead of wasting more time amending these bills to try to make their constituents a little less angry, lawmakers should kill these bills and get back to work on Virginians' priorities." This week, Virginia has come under increasing national scrutiny for moves to pass the legislation, the first of two of the most controversial anti-abortion bills in recent history proposed by state Republicans. Democratic delegates said that the Republicans did not understand the science and said that they missed the opportunity to properly discuss it. Charniele Herring said: "Governor McDonnell is still willing to sign a mandate to require doctors to perform an unnecessary medical procedure. That is unacceptable." She added: "The way they rewrote it will require a woman to have an abdominal ultrasound. They missed the point of the science. The reason a transvaginal ultrasound is used an at early stage of pregnancy is that you cannot detect anything otherwise. They messed it up again." During the debate, before the bill was passed, Jennifer McClellan, another Democratic delegate, told Republicans: "What you have done is mandate an ultrasound that is utterly useless. Early in a pregnancy the reason a transvaginal ultrasound is done is because if you do it externally all you see is muscle." The reason for the governor's change of mind is unclear, although two officials told the Washington Post that some of the bill's supporters were apparently unaware of how invasive the procedure would be. Other suggest that McDonnell's motivations are political. He is seen as a rising star in the party and a possible vice-presidential candidate, and so he is keen to avoid being associated with a measure that could be politically damaging at a national level. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/feb/22/virginia-governor-uturn-abortion-bill  DO SOMETHING! |
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