Indiana Bill Would Force Women To Undergo Two Transvaginal Probes To Take A Pill

By Annie-Rose Strasser/Think Progress

A medication abortion pill, officially known as RU-486, is the earliest available abortion option for a woman. A patient could be as little as one week pregnant and take the pill to terminate. But despite the incredibly early stage at which the pill is administered, a new bill proposed in the Indiana State Senate would require women to undergo a transvaginal ultrasound before they are permitted to simply swallow the medication.

Indiana’s effort follows a sweeping national trend to mandate the medically unnecessary and invasive procedure as a way to create barriers to abortion access. And theirs goes a step further, by also forcing clinics that administer the pill to meet all of the same requirements as a surgical abortion clinic:

The provision is included in Senate Bill 371, which also would require any clinic that dispenses the drug — known as RU-486 — to meet the same requirements as a clinic that performs surgical abortions, though physicians’ offices would be exempt.

Those requirements, opponents say, potentially would force the Planned Parenthood clinic in Lafayette to close. That clinic offers the abortion pill but does not perform surgical abortions. If the bill passes, the clinic would have to widen hallways and doorways to meet state specifications for surgery and install anesthesia, surgical and sterilization equipment.

Twelve states already have unnecessary ultrasound laws on the books, and over a dozen more are being considered in state houses across the country. But the theory that legislators are peddling — that such laws might change a woman’s mind — ignore the simple fact that 90 percent of women feel very confident about their decision to get an abortion before seeing a doctor. A transvaginal ultrasound may cause a woman discomfort and cost her more money, but it’s unlikely to change her constitutionally-protected decision to get an abortion.

UPDATE

Indiana’s bill is actually twice as invasive as most forced ultrasound bills, theHuffington Post reports. The version that advanced out of a Senate committee today would require women to undergo two transvaginal probes — before and after taking the abortion pill. There’s no medically necessary reason to require an ultrasound after an abortion procedure, since women can simply take a blood test to see whether their hormone levels have returned to normal to verify that they are no longer pregnant.

Republicans Block Votes On 97 Federal Nominees In A Single Day

By Zaid Jilani Republicans have been blocking votes on nominees to federal posts, taking longer to confirm President Obama’s nominees to executive agencies than nominees submitted by the previous three administrations. Due to these blocks, there is a backlog of 101 executive branch nominees that have yet to be voted on, ranging from the Transportation Safety Authority chief to members of the Marine Mammal Commission. Senators commonly issue “anonymous holds” to prevent a nomination from coming up for a vote.

Sens. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) took aim at this tactic yesterday evening. Employing a “little-used rule adopted in 2007 that requires a Member to report his anonymous hold [on a federal nominee] in the Congressional Record [six days] after a colleague has tried to clear the name,” the two senators took to the Senate floor to try and clear the backlog and ask for unanimous consent for votes on scores of federal nominees.

As Whitehouse and McCaskill began reading the names of stalled federal nominees, the Republicans at first didn’t even appear. Whitehouse then waited patiently for a Republican Senator to arrive on the floor. Minority Whip Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) finally appeared and began objecting to the two senators’ unanimous consent requests, ultimately blocking votes on 97 nominees. The Huffington Post has assembled a video compilation of Kyl blocking Whitehouse and McCaskill’s requests. Watch it:

“Hopefully by the end of the week we’ll learn who it is in the Senate that doesn’t want them to be nominated, who it is that doesn’t want them to be confirmed,” McCaskill said afterwards. Because of the rule that McCaskill and Whitehouse employed, the senators who have placed the anonymous holds now have six legislative days before they have to reveal who they are to the Congressional Record. However, as the Huffington Post’s Ryan Gram and Ben Craw note, the senators “may be able to wiggle out of going public by dropping their holds and picking them right back up, or teaming up with other Republicans and swapping the holds back and forth. It’s never been tried before.”

Sen. Michael Bennet (D-CO) has introduced a package of legislative reforms in the Senate that would eliminate the ability of senators to place anonymous holds.

M.C.L comment: Wasn't Kyl and the other members of the American Skinhead party the ones demanding up and down votes on George W. Bush's nominees?