Ina Feb. 23 NewsBusters post, Ken Shepherd complained that a MSNBC segment on a proposed Virginia law that required women seeking an abortion to undergo an ultrasound before the procedure failed to mention that “Planned Parenthood abortionists already perform ultrasounds before abortions.”
Shepherd did the same thing in a Feb. 24 post highlighting a Washington Post article on the proposed law, responding that the article did not note that “abortionists in the Old Dominion who are affiliated with Planned Parenthood already do ultrasounds prior to conducting abortions.”
Clay Waters echoed this talking point in a Feb. 22 MRC TimesWatch item, complaining that a New York Times article failed to mention that “the Virginia League of Planned Parenthood conducts ultrasounds before they perform abortions.”
That’s beside the point. The point is that an abdominal ultrasound is unlikely to produce an image when performed early in the pregnancy — one-third of abortions are performed at six weeks or less. To obtain a usable ultrasound image that early requires that an instrument be placed inside the woman’s vagina.
Does Shepherd think that the government should have the power to mandate that something be shoved inside a woman’s vagina? Apparently so.