Ultrasound during abortion

Ohio’s bill simply tells
abortion clinics to do what they were doing anyway.

COLUMBUS (AP) — High-technology has entered the abortion debate in Ohio and about a dozen other states, where proposals have emerged to give women a chance to see ultrasound pictures of the embryo or fetus they are carrying before ending their pregnancies.

Most of the state proposals are watered-down versions of a more stringent federal version, sponsored by Republican Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas, which would require doctors to take ultrasounds before abortions and compel women to look at them or sign a written waiver.

Such an approach hasn’t played well so far in the states, where ultrasound bills have been so mild that Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm, a pro-choice Democrat, signed one into law last year and abortion rights groups have been unable to find anything in Ohio’s version to oppose.

“We’re remaining neutral on the bill because, as it is right now, it’s telling clinics to do what they already do,” said Kellie Copeland, executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice Ohio.

Gary Dougherty, who oversees the state’s Planned Parenthood operations, concurred.

“It’s our standard practice,” he said. “If somebody asks to see it, we’re going to show it to them — no question.”

Dougherty said it is common practice at Planned Parenthood clinics to use ultrasound technology during an abortion, and such a law would apply to both still and video ultrasound images.

The proposition of forcing women to view the equivalent of live-action video of their own abortions first ran into trouble this spring in South Carolina, where lawmakers revised language from requiring to simply allowing ultrasound viewing before passing their bill.

The Ohio proposal has been patterned after South Carolina’s, said state Sen. Gary Cates, its Republican sponsor. Similar legislation also emerged in Kansas and Missouri following Right to Life’s annual convention in Kansas City this summer.

The organization says 11 states have passed legislation allowing women to view ultrasound images so far.

Mark Lally, legal director for Right to Life of Ohio, said opponents of abortion believe having women view ultrasound images may change their minds about ending their pregnancies.

“We have encountered women who, after having abortions, saw ultrasounds in other contexts of other children and they say, ’Hey, that’s about the same age the child that I aborted was,’ and they have adverse emotional reactions,” Lally said. “They see that was a different being than they necessarily thought.”