State-Sanctioned Rape: Trans-Vaginal Ultrasound Laws in Virginia, Texas, and Iowa | RH Reality Check
State-Sanctioned Rape: Trans-Vaginal Ultrasound Laws in Virginia, Texas, and Iowa | RH Reality Check
I can't even begin to think what purpose this could possibly serve. To make a woman realize she's pregnant? I think requesting an abortion is proof she's quite aware of that. Out of some misguided belief that the request for an abortion is a matter of - in the repellent words of Republican State Delegate Todd Gilbert - "lifestyle convenience"? Are all women requesting abortions then women who just want their lives to be easier? I hardly think so. Or out of the equally misguided belief that once the woman sees the fetus she'll want to carry it to term? I doubt it's occurred to the proponents of this bill that it may not be a matter of desire or lack of desire, but of the realization that you are not willing, stable enough, or able for a variety of reasons to carry a pregnancy to term or to raise a child.
Every single one of these points ties back into what is really at the root of the anti-choice movement: the belief that women are not equal, that we cannot make rational decisions for ourselves, and instead we must be guided. Actually, let's be completely honest and us a stronger word: we must be controlled.
This law will not, of course, affect women who have the means and ability to go out of state to obtain their abortions. Poor women likely will not have that option.
I couldn't find anything that says whether or not women will have to pay for these ultrasounds, or if they will be covered by the state. Let's assume the former, as that's likely what's going to happen. Rape victims who have conceived and chosen to abort will be violated again. Poor women will not be able to afford abortions, thus raising their children in poverty if they do not give them up for adoption and enforcing the cycle of poverty.
Here again we see the core of the anti-choice movement: punishment. "You were a bad girl* and got pregnant when you shouldn't have. Should have kept your legs closed/not asked for it. Now you have to pay."
*I use the word 'girl' because laws such as this are so purely infantalizing I refuse to believe its proponents think of adult human females as 'women'.
If the anti-choice movement were as pro-life as it claims, there are dozens of other routes it could take: improving accessibility to affordable, effective birth control; working for pay parity and pay equity to increase women's economic standing; comprehensive contraceptive education; lobbying for subsidized daycare and social programs to help low-income families and single parents, and more. They do not do this, and it puts the lie to their 'pro-life' rhetoric in big red letters all the world should see.
This isn't about life. It never was, and it never has been. This is about control, and punishment. No more, no less.
I can't even begin to think what purpose this could possibly serve. To make a woman realize she's pregnant? I think requesting an abortion is proof she's quite aware of that. Out of some misguided belief that the request for an abortion is a matter of - in the repellent words of Republican State Delegate Todd Gilbert - "lifestyle convenience"? Are all women requesting abortions then women who just want their lives to be easier? I hardly think so. Or out of the equally misguided belief that once the woman sees the fetus she'll want to carry it to term? I doubt it's occurred to the proponents of this bill that it may not be a matter of desire or lack of desire, but of the realization that you are not willing, stable enough, or able for a variety of reasons to carry a pregnancy to term or to raise a child.
Every single one of these points ties back into what is really at the root of the anti-choice movement: the belief that women are not equal, that we cannot make rational decisions for ourselves, and instead we must be guided. Actually, let's be completely honest and us a stronger word: we must be controlled.
This law will not, of course, affect women who have the means and ability to go out of state to obtain their abortions. Poor women likely will not have that option.
I couldn't find anything that says whether or not women will have to pay for these ultrasounds, or if they will be covered by the state. Let's assume the former, as that's likely what's going to happen. Rape victims who have conceived and chosen to abort will be violated again. Poor women will not be able to afford abortions, thus raising their children in poverty if they do not give them up for adoption and enforcing the cycle of poverty.
Here again we see the core of the anti-choice movement: punishment. "You were a bad girl* and got pregnant when you shouldn't have. Should have kept your legs closed/not asked for it. Now you have to pay."
*I use the word 'girl' because laws such as this are so purely infantalizing I refuse to believe its proponents think of adult human females as 'women'.
If the anti-choice movement were as pro-life as it claims, there are dozens of other routes it could take: improving accessibility to affordable, effective birth control; working for pay parity and pay equity to increase women's economic standing; comprehensive contraceptive education; lobbying for subsidized daycare and social programs to help low-income families and single parents, and more. They do not do this, and it puts the lie to their 'pro-life' rhetoric in big red letters all the world should see.
This isn't about life. It never was, and it never has been. This is about control, and punishment. No more, no less.