Tuesday, May 31, 2005


Bill requires ultrasound prior to an abortion
Wonder who is going to pay for this. I find it interesting that the people who are calling for more government intrusion into our private lives are the sames ones who refuse to pay for it.

LANSING - All women seeking abortions would be required to submit to ultrasound procedures under legislation being taken up this week in the state Senate.

The bill, pushed by abortion opponents, is the latest test of lawmakers' personal beliefs on the sensitive issue. It passed the House on a 69-37 vote last week.

Ultrasound would become an additional mandate in Michigan's informed consent law, which requires women considering abortions to receive medically accurate information before ending their pregnancies. A diagnostic technique, ultrasound produces a fuzzy, TV-like image of the fetus inside the mother's womb.

Doctors and nurses would have to offer abortion seekers the opportunity to view these images. The expectant mothers, however, would not be required to look at them.

Gov. Jennifer Granholm, whose signature would be required to make the bill law, doesn't support it as passed by the House.

"It places government in the middle of people's most personal and intimate medical decisions, a highly inappropriate place for politicians to be," said the governor's spokeswoman, Liz Boyd.

"It purports to be about informing women, yet House members chose not to include an amendment that would have given them information about avoiding unintended pregnancies," she added.

Requiring an ultrasound in all cases would drive up medical care costs, creating hardship for low-income women and those in rural areas who already may have to drive a considerable distance to a clinic where abortions are available, they contend.

During the debate, Rep. Alma Wheeler Smith called the legislation an effort "to coerce a pregnant woman from the exercise of her legal right to choose. Should this bill pass, for the first time the Michigan Legislature will mandate the use of a medically unnecessary procedure," said Smith, D-South Lyon.

This is why we need Granholm. We need her vetoes to keep these people at bay. She is the only thing standing between us and complete insanity.

IF we had a Republican Governor, chances are these following bills would have succeeded-

A bill to ban partial birth abortions with NO regards to the health and life of the mother, that same bill also sought to define the "beginning of life".

A bill that would have banned local city governments from setting their own living- wage laws, which would have lowered wages for some working people in expensive cities.

A bill that would have required couples to receive pre-marriage counseling, yet more intrusion into private decisions. This bill also mandated that divorcing couples receive counseling.

These are just a few. The choice is obvious to me- we elect a Republican governor with this Republican legislature, expect all kinds of laws based on other people's need to force their vision of "morality" into your life.