The battle over abortion rights continues in North Carolina, where state law now requires doctors to send the ultrasounds of women seeking abortions to state officials. Depending on whom you talk to, this is either a gross intimidation tactic by the state or a necessary practice to verify that clinics are complying with a previously enacted state law that bans abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy…. Melissa Reed, the director of Planned Parenthood Votes! South Atlantic, argues that the law, which went into effect on January 1, is “medically unnecessary and purely politically driven. The true intent of the law is clear—to shame women and intimidate the doctors that care for them.”
I suppose we should be thankful for Republicans, those watchful, dedicated public servants committed to small government, eh? Of course, if by “small government” you mean “small enough to enforce our narrow, authoritarian theology and godly dominion over women,” you’re probably very happy if you live in North Carolina. The Tar Heel State is serious about creating a government small enough to fit inside a woman’s vagina…because you just know that women are FAR too emotional and flighty to be trusted to make decisions regarding their reproductive functions.
Having effectively neutered Roe v. Wade, North Carolina Republican are working overtime to legislate women back to being second-class citizens and the legal property of men. There’s no credible argument to be made that requiring ultrasounds of women seeking abortions to be forwarded to state officials serves any medically useful purpose. It’s “medically unnecessary and politically driven,” pure and simple. It’s also undoubtedly a violation of the federal government’s HIPAA Privacy Rule that protects the privacy and medical information of patients. Attempts at intimidating women and convincing them to forego an abortion aren’t new, but North Carolina’s state law is one of the most cynical, politically motivated attempts to marginalize women I can recall.
What’s next? Printing ultrasounds in newspapers along with the pictures and addresses of women seeking abortions? Perhaps showing them on the 6:00 news next to the pictures of the women request their fetus be aborted? Or perhaps legislators could just make women wear a scarlet “A?”
At least we now know why Republicans want to get government off the backs of Americans- so they can shrink it down enough so it can be inserted into a woman’s vagina. Now there’s some prescient, enlightened leadership, eh??
