pro-choice protestRoe v. Wade ensures American women at the federal level with the right to a safe and legal abortion, but that is by no means stopping states from attempting to chip away at -- or in this most recent case, take a chainsaw to -- that right. The most recent offending state: Virginia, where the GOP supermajority "muscled [through] two of the most restrictive anti-abortion bills in years," according to the AP. 

The first, like many that have been floated and gone back and forth in other southern states, would require that doctors give women a transvaginal ultrasound (which, if you're not familiar, involves insertion of a condom-covered probe into the vagina to obtain an image during the very early stages of a pregnancy) before they can have an abortion. The second -- also familiar -- basically asserts that a person's rights should begin from the moment the sperm meets the egg. INSANE.

Right now, it looks like the first bill has a better shot at getting turned into a law, as the GOP Governor, Bob McConnell, has pledged to support that one, but has yet to say how he feels about declaring a zygote a person with rights. (Does that mean that if a woman miscarries, she could be convicted of murder? Hey, it's a legit Q if this is actually being treated as a legit bill in state legislature ...)

Maybe it's the fact that the year is 2012, Roe v. Wade was passed almost 40 years ago, and we're still second-guessing women and doctors. Maybe it's that the same party that says they want "hands-off government" is in support of the state forcing physicians to perform an invasive ultrasound on a woman before she can have a voluntarily, LEGAL procedure. Either way, I'm having trouble wrapping my head around how scary it is that Virginia is this close to trampling the rights of thousands of people and virtually outlawing abortion.

Not to mention how legislation like this is in no one's best interest, especially not women. These bills, if they become laws, will do nothing but create more physical and mental anguish for women in the state of Virginia, some of whom have already had to make the difficult decision to have an abortion, and some of whom may be interested in carrying their baby to term but are faced with a miscarriage or other unfortunate circumstance that terminates the pregnancy. There's just no way around it: Bills like these HURT WOMEN.

Where do you stand on bills like the ones VA Republicans are attempting to pass?

 

Image via Debra Sweet/Flickr