A Sun-Sentinel news report states that, "any woman seeking to terminate pregnancy would be required to pay for an ultrasound."
The state representative who introduced the bill commented, "I cannot imagine any man having a surgical procedure without prior tests." Apparently she views killing a child through abortion to simply be a "surgical procedure" and letting the patient have a look at the child ahead of time is a good idea!
Even though the bill itself is problematic because it does little if anything to actually end abortion, the arguments against it are inane and expose the rabidly pro-abortion tenor of those who oppose it. One pro-abort described the measure as "little more than a government invasion into a private health matter."
In response to that I would say, pregnancy is a perfectly healthy state for any woman to be in—pregnancy is not a disease. There is nothing invasive at all about attempting to show the expectant mother her child before she makes a fatal decision that will destroy one life and possibly two.
Another pro-abort said, "This is not about protecting the rights of women. This is about eroding the rights of women."
In other words, an expectant mother should not have the right to receive enough information to help her think through a decision that is life-changing for her and life-ending for her child. Obviously it is the pro-abort agenda that is eroding rights.
Planned Parenthood is screaming about this bill, telling their followers, "HB 257 is misleading and anti-women—it claims to protect women's health, when it does nothing for the women of Florida."
If you cannot figure out what is anti-women about ultrasounds, join the club. The only conclusion I can come to is that Planned Parenthood doesn’t want to even suggest the possibility that a mother seeking to abort her child might change her mind.
While it is unclear whether or not this particular piece of legislation will even get passed, I think it is telling to listen to the manner in which pro-aborts argue when it comes to something as benign as ultrasound. After all, the ultrasound is not going to stop her from having her baby killed. If that is what the legislators had wanted, then they would have required that the ultrasound be followed by pro-life counseling designed to encourage the mother to carry her baby to term.
It is this point that forces me to state that the entire bill is fraught with moral hazards. The type of legislation being proposed in Florida is really lacking in basic because if you think about what the proposed law is telling the expectant mother, it is simply this: We are going to require the abortionist to show you an ultrasound prior to you making a final decision about whether or not to abort your child. So after you see the ultrasound, feel free to abort the baby!