Happy Valentine's Day, Women of Virginia!

Just when I thought Republicans couldn’t get any more repulsive...

My friend Denise DeWindt just informed me that conservative politicians in the Commonwealth of Virginia want to require women to be vaginally penetrated before they can get abortions.

And I thought Michigan was messed up.

Virginia’s ultrasound bill – which just passed the state House on a 63 to 36 vote – would require any woman who wants an abortion to submit to an ultrasound first. But get this: external ultrasounds don’t work early in pregnancy; only trans-vaginal ultrasounds can produce images of fetuses at this stage.

Democrat David Englin from Alexandria tried to amend the bill to require that women consent to the procedure before it can occur but his amendment was rejected by the Republican-controlled House.

The Virginia Senate approved a similar bill earlier this month. Politicians are expected to pass final versions of the mandate before the legislative session ends in March and Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell, a Republican, is expected to sign ‘em.

Lawmakers also passed the state's personhood bill Tuesday. (The personhood movement being advanced by this country’s far-right religious zealots is all about legally defining fetuses as people in order to make aborting them murder.) Since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled almost four decades ago that abortion is a legal medical procedure, opponents have done their best to restrict women’s ability to control their own bodies. This is just one more attempt to ram their own opinions and beliefs down everyone else’s throats.

What pro-life zealots don’t understand is that the trickier and more offensive their behavior, the more galvanized pro-choice forces become in response and the less likely their despicable efforts are to ultimately be successful – or lasting, if they happen to achieve temporary success.

Pendulums swing both ways.

It might be different if the pro-life movement here in the U.S. weren’t comprised largely of white males who want to control women’s bodies but don’t give a sh*t about the babies once they emerge from the women’s dirty bits. It might be different if the pro-life movement didn’t consist primarily of narrow-minded, intolerant, off-putting fanatics who think they’re members of God’s Army but are in reality just judgmental freaks who divide, enrage and traumatize.

It might be different if conservatives focused at least occasionally on issues like reducing unemployment, improving public education, preventing war and fixing crumbling roads, schools and bridges. But for many on the right, it’s all about genitalia and embryos and fetuses. And this is more than sad. It’s shameful, embarrassing and prurient.

I’m really having a hard time wrapping my head around this. It’s truly unbelievable that laws like this are being passed anywhere in this country in this day and age. I have no more words.


Source: Huffington Post.