A stealth bill that changes nothing, really. It does not require doctors to do ultrasound, which is what the RtL people were shooting for, but gives women the option of viewing them if the doctor has done one already.
Option being the key word here.
LANSING -- Gov. Jennifer Granholm will sign into law a bill requiring Michigan abortion providers to give a pregnant woman the option of viewing ultrasound images of her fetus before performing an abortion, according to her spokeswoman.
It would mark the first time Granholm has agreed with the Legislature's anti-abortion majority on a measure to regulate the procedure. The bill, which moved quietly through the Legislature, is an expansion of the state's so-called informed consent law.
Granholm spokeswoman Liz Boyd said Sunday that the governor would sign the bill, which an abortion-rights advocate said is an effort to create a barrier to abortion. Boyd said the legislation was developed in cooperation with abortion-rights organizations and won't change current practice.
The law would require physicians who take ultrasound images before performing an abortion to give his or her patient the opportunity to view an active ultrasound of the fetus, and to offer the patient a still image taken from the ultrasound.
It expands a 1993 law that required abortion providers to give a pregnant woman the option of receiving medical information about a developing fetus at least 24 hours before an abortion could be performed.
The ultrasound amendment attracted little attention and only token resistance in the Legislature. The state House approved a final version of the bill March 8 on a vote of 84-21; it passed the Senate unanimously last week.
State Sen. Gilda Jacobs, D-Huntington Woods, said Friday that she thinks the legislation was designed to place Granholm in a politically awkward position in an election year. But Jacobs said the final product does not unduly restrict abortion rights and "is not a very big deal."
But the media is making it a "very big deal". The Free Press has this as the lead story, and it also appears on my local TV web sites.
As long as doctors aren't forced into doing them, and as long as women aren't forced into viewing them, I don't see where this is a problem. Could be a smart political move- giving the RtL people a hollow victory and at the same time actually stopping them from their drive to make ultrasounds mandatory.