180 degrees

As reported here last week, there are some distractions from the real issues the country should be facing – the economy, war, that kind of stuff. Instead, we have uproar over how President Obama has found a way to mandate free contraception for women.

It turns out women’s health issues will continue to be unwillingly embraced by (usually male) politicians. Government increases its interest in getting involved in what happens in people’s bedrooms and then what happens outside those bedrooms when the things that go on in there don’t play out exactly as planned – literally.

Last week, the state of Virginia passed a law that called for “informed consent” for a woman seeking an abortion. Very good. But wait. The new law demands “every pregnant female shall undergo ultrasound imaging and be given an opportunity to view the ultrasound image of her fetus prior to the abortion.”

David Englin, a Virginia state legislator, explained why he opposed the bill in a statement: “This bill will require many women in Virginia to undergo vaginal penetration with an ultrasound probe against their consent in order to exercise their constitutional right to an abortion, even for nonsurgical, noninvasive, pharmaceutical abortions. The next time Virginia Republicans speak the words ‘government intrusion’ I hope voters will remember this vote and hold them accountable for their hypocrisy.”

In other words, doctors are being ordered by the state government to perform a medically unnecessary procedure regardless of the circumstances as part of a process that must be traumatic enough for anyone undertaking it.

Political debate in America is not always measured and so it is on this issue. Some commentators have claimed that the ruling could be interpreted as state-mandated rape. They may have a point.

On the other side, Dana Loesch, an opinionated right-wing pin up, appeared to suggest the Virginia procedure was little different from consensual sex that gets most women into the situation that they require an abortion.

“There were individuals saying, ‘Oh what about the Virginia rape? The rapes that, the forced rapes of women who are pregnant?’ What!? Wait a minute, they had no problem having similar to a trans-vaginal procedure when they engaged in the act that resulted in their pregnancy.”

Loesch, it should be noted, is hot for controversy. In the wake of a controversial video that circulated on the Internet showing US Marines urinating on the corpses of Taliban fighters, she said she’d have joined in given the opportunity. Loesch, it should also be noted, holds certain credibility in her role as a political commentator for CNN.

Can it get crazier? Yes. The Virginia Governor who will sign the bill into law is named Bob McDonnell. He’s a guy with eyes on the Republican Presidential ticket and could be just the guy Mitt Romney needs to broaden his right-wing appeal.