| Perhaps the most appalling revelation during yesterday's hearing on HB-15, the House version of the Sonogram Bill, was that bill author Rep. Sid Miller, R-Every Woman's Uterus, didn't realize exactly what kind of highly intrusive procedure he was mandating for the women of Texas. This came to light during debate, when Rep. Carol Alvarado detailed the procedure Miller wants to force on Texas women.
From the Statesman:
When offering her amendment, Alvarado gave an in-depth description of a trans-vaginal sonogram, which she said is the only way to perform a sonogram on women who are less than eight to 10 weeks pregnant.
"This is not the jelly on the belly that most of you think," she said as she held up a vaginal probe. "This is government intrusion at its best."
From the Masonic Cancer Center at the University of Minnesota, here's an illustration from a medical instructional text on how to use the vaginal probe. I have, ahem, modified it somewhat.
Women who are victims of rape or incest are not excluded from HB 15 as currently written. It is appalling, shocking, and repulsive that Miller's bill would force victims of sexual assault to be violated all over again, should they become pregnant from their attack, by forcing doctors to force that ultrasound wand into their patients.
Hey Sid: if you're going to require all women seeking an abortion to view a sonogram, and you don't even know that for women it's an extremely intrusive, transvaginal ultrasound, maybe you shouldn't be writing laws telling women what to do with their bodies?
And if anyone's uncomfortable with this image, how comfortable are you with a state that forces a doctor to do this to our women? And how comfortable are the Texas women with their feet in the stirrups going to be?
Just a thought. |
