Virginia Becomes Eighth State to Require Ultrasounds before Abortions

Sunday, March 11, 2012
Gov. Bob McDonnell
Women in Virginia, like those in seven other states, will be required to undergo an ultrasound procedure as a condition for having an abortion under a new law signed by Republican Governor Bob McDonnell. An earlier version of the bill created a national controversy because it would have required some women to have a transvaginal ultrasound, which many criticized as physically invasive and unacceptably intrusive. The law as signed, however, requires only an abdominal ultrasound. The other seven states that also require an ultrasound are Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. Texas also requires the ultrasound technician to display and describe the resulting image, while similar laws in North Carolina and Oklahoma are currently unenforceable because they are being challenged in court.
 
The Supreme Court recognized that the Constitutional right to privacy includes a woman’s right to choose whether or not to carry a pregnancy to term in the case of Roe v. Wade (1973). Later Supreme Court cases, especially City of Akron v. Akron Center for Reproductive Health (1983), watered down protection for abortion rights by allowing states to place burdens on abortion as long as they are not “undue.” That opened the floodgates for anti-choice legislators to try to fashion abortion restrictions that would pass the vague “undue burden” test.
-Matt Bewig
 
To Learn More:

State Policies in Brief: Requirements for Ultrasound (Guttmacher Institute) (pdf) 

Comments

Disgusted 12 years ago
they should also be required to hear the story of jesus before they can get a driver's license.

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