In Texas and Va., Different Reactions to Sonogram Bills
The pandemonium over Virginia’s proposed abortion sonogram law — from a Saturday Night Live sketch to furious protests and intense national media coverage — bears little resemblance to the battle over Texas’ version of the law.
That’s despite some striking similarities between the two states: They’re both Republican-leaning; they both have conservative governors with national ambitions who have headed the Republican Governors Association. But the political reality is that Texas’ abortion sonogram bill and Virginia’s abortion sonogram bill were debated at very different times, and under very different circumstances.
Though both states have Republican governors — Rick Perry in ...
Comments (19)
Laura Watts Kinnison via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Rick Perry is proud of all his stupid decisions.
Kevin Williams via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Sour grapes from Rep. Coleman, the loser. Fact is, Texas women considering an abortion will now receive FULL disclosure from their Doctor. This puts an end to abortionists like Planned Parenthood who would lie to women, deny they were about to kill a healthy baby human, referring to it dismissively as "a clump of cells".
Cliff McSparran via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Republican presidential candidates may have multi-billionaire supporters, but these guys' pandering to the Christian right with this kind of primitive legislation (seeking to turn back the clock) will anger enough women and moderate men to make them jokes in November.
Susan Topper via Texas Tribune on Facebook
I have lived in Texas all my life and it has become too backwards for me. It has been taken over by right wing, evangelical, wing nuts. They do not value public education nor women's rights.
Jesus McBootypants via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Silly texas. Thanks to oil it's economy is a few decades ahead of its society.
Caitlin Gilchrist via Texas Tribune on Facebook
"Mandating an invasive procedure [such as a transvaginal ultrasound] 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." McDonnell's words. I never expected to hear that coming from the mouth of a conservative Republican. Now I'm hoping more of these nutjob GOPers like Perry will listen to him.
Mary Lynn VanZandt Neill via Texas Tribune on Facebook
By different sexes,too,right?? How could we be so moronic!?Older white guys tell us what to do IF,AFTER,or WHEN "we" get pregnant?! Good Lord!
Ed Caffrey via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Go crawl back into your cave Kevin, it is so easy for you to say what you do as it does not affect your life in any way whatsoever. Women recieve no more disclosure than they did before, this goes along with religionists need to guilt people because they are unsuccessful in the art of persuasion. The difference in reaction has as much to do with the fact that people expect crazy shit to come out of Texas, not Virginia. I for one am sick of the Christian Taliban shoving and imposing their religious beliefs into our country. You want to live in a theocracy Kevin, I suggest you move to Iran.
Mary Warren via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Coleman is right.
Merryl Redding via Texas Tribune on Facebook
So making women aware that they have a baby not a "thing" in them is bad?? If women want control over their body, do it before another life is involved. This has NOTHING to do with religion, it's LIFE... Hiding that fact is shameful, just as calling pro-abortion people "pro-choice" because it sounds bad to say pro-abortion. It's still what it is, no matter how you try to disguise it.
Samdavis
Let me put it short and sweet Kevin Williams. "You're an idiot". You know absolutely nothing about Planned Parenthood and love spewing your ignorant hatred. It's none of your business what pregnant women choose to do but it is mine when ignorant nearly all-male GOP legislators shut down free clinics that don't even provide pregnancy termination because idiots like you vote in idiots like Rick Perry and Greg Abbott.
Rudy Gonzales
There should be vasectomy regulations and every politician who votes for implementation of the trans-vaginal Ultrasound/Sonogram should be required to have the same procedure for each time it is forced onto Texas women as if they can't think on their own. Texas has a one party state and that is how Texas got it's version of women's abuse orders from other than a medical doctor. There is a preponderous of evidence the Texas TEA-GOP-Republican have won this bout. The November election is a great chance for Texas women to vote their true conviction and turn out a number of the confrontational TEA-GOP-Republican party members in Austin. Voting straight Democratic ticket would send a huge message to those who want women to be their chattel.
Chris Hilbert via Texas Tribune on Facebook
I wish I was a pharmasist...I would REFUSE to dispense Viagra (and similar drugs) as against my religious beliefs....only way things are going to change, is if women start treating men the same way men treat women.
Chris Hilbert via Texas Tribune on Facebook
@Merryl, a fetus is not a baby, calling it a baby does make it one. At 12 weeks gestation, the fetus is only a few inches long, it can not breathe on it's own, and in fact, still shows the "tadpole" tail! Even the bible says that a baby is not a baby until it takes it's first breath. http://joeschwartz.net/life.htm
Joe Pojman via Texas Tribune on Facebook
The transvaginal sonograms are nothing new in Texas and I suspect in Virginia, too. Abortion providers have been doing them for years. The sonogram law doesn't change that. We heard testimony in committee when the Sonogram Bill was being considered by the Texas Legislature that every abortion in Texas is already preceded by a sonogram, and Abby Brannam Johnson, the former director of a Planned Parenthood abortion facility in Bryan, TX, says Planned Parenthood's protocal calls for transvaginal sonograms for early first trimester abortions.
Sam Davis via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Abby Johnson was fired from Planned Parenthood and has been largely discredited except among those who are willing to ignore the facts surrounding her firing and subsequent use of that misconduct to make a lot of money off the anti-abortion crowd.
Joe Pojman via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Correction: Abby Johnson resigned her position as director of Planned Parenthood's Bryan, TX, abortion facility in September 2009 after receiving Planned Parenthood's "Employee of the Year" award in 2008. She says that she resigned from Planned Parenthood after assisting in an ultrasound-guided abortion and watching a 13-week-old baby struggle for its life and ultimately lose the battle. She was also troubled by the organization's insistence to promote and increase abortions at its health centers. She says they were selling abortions to the most vulnerable women in our society.
Anya Khan
So transvaginal ultrasounds are ok when your having an abortion, but to prove your child is alive that is bad. Savages
Beverly Nuckols
And Garnet Coleman has no personal interest in the whole debate, right? Let's see, what did his daddy do to earn a living and put him through law school?
Texas is proud to be a "Red State" that elected all the people who voted for the Sonogram Bill in our Legislature. The only Republican Senator who did not vote for the Bill, Hairy-Legged male that he is, is being primaried and will lose to one of the women - a doctor, Donna Campbell and another lawyer, Elizabeth Jones, who have declared that they are pro-life. (Jeff Wentworth is pro-life after the second trimester, but up to the third trimester, he believes abortion should be legal.)