Recommend This Story*Vogel ultrasound bill passes Senate
|
|
By Alex Bridges -- abridges@nvdaily.com
A bill that would require women to undergo an ultrasound as part of informed consent before they can receive an abortion passed the state Senate on Wednesday.
The Senate voted 21-18 in favor of the proposed legislation, according to the General Assembly website.
Sen. Jill H. Vogel, R-Upperville, introduced the bill. Sen. Mark D. Obenshain, R-Harrisonburg, also voted in favor of the bill.
Reached by phone Wednesday afternoon, Vogel said her bill sought only to protect women's health. The legislation did not seek to infringe on a woman's right to an abortion or on physicians' medical practices, Vogel said.
The votes fell largely along partly lines, with two Democrats voting in favor of the bill and one Republican opposing the legislation. Sen. Louise L. Lucas, D-Portsmouth, did not vote.
As proposed, the bill requires that, as a component of informed consent to an abortion, to determine gestation age, every pregnant female shall undergo ultrasound imaging and be given the opportunity to view the image of the fetus prior to the abortion.
The medical professional performing the ultrasound must obtain written certification from the woman that the opportunity was offered and whether the patient availed herself of the chance to see the ultrasound image or hear the fetal heartbeat.
The bill also requires the facility where the abortion was performed to maintain a copy of the ultrasound and written certification in the patient's medical records.
A similar bill introduced by Del. Kathy J. Byron, R-Lynchburg, remains in a House of Delegates committee, online records showed.
For further developments visit nvdaily.com or read the print edition of The Northern Virginia Daily.
0 
The whole case for extending protection to the unborn and to expressing a bias in favor of life has been wrecked by those who use unborn children, as well as born ones, as mere objects to be manipulated by their religious doctrine. Every step towards the clarification of this argument has been opposed chapter and verse by the clergy. Even the attempt to educate people to family planning has been rejected, espousing the religious belief every sperm, every egg, when united no matter how briefly, is destined to be born, a statement championing a wildly useless proposition. The more fanatical practitioners of religious faith want any attempt to thwart this concept to be treated as murder, every birth control pill a murder weapon, every condom the cause of mass murders.
Let the sky become dark with circling attorneys eager to overturn this legislative abomination as unconstitutional.