Texas Lawmakers Consider Sonogram Bill

AUSTIN, Texas, March 11, 2009 -- A controversial Texas bill that requires women seeking abortions to have an ultrasound has reignited a battle between politicians and pro-choice advocates throughout the state.

Senate bill 182 and House bill 36 propose that a pregnant woman must have an ultrasound, listen to her fetus's heartbeat and sign a written statement confirming that these requirements have been fulfilled.

In 2007, the state Senate approved the bill, but it stalled in the House. For this session, if the bill passes with a 2/3 vote of the House, it will go into effect Sept. 1.

Nationwide Debate

Lawmakers around the country are considering similar legislation. In fact, Texas is one of 11 states voting on pre-abortion ultrasounds. South Carolina already has a law requiring women be given the option of viewing an ultrasound an hour before getting an abortion.

"This bill would be like a politician sitting directly in the exam room between the physician and the client," said Sarah Wheat, vice president for community affairs at Planned Parenthood in Austin.

Wheat, who formerly worked with NARAL Pro-Choice America, said women who seek abortions at Planned Parenthood already receive ultrasounds so that the doctor can check for problems and see the development of the pregnancy.

Allowed to Look Away

The bill requires that women be shown their ultrasound, but allows them to divert their eyes. They must also be read a description of the size and development of the fetus, and listen to the fetal heartbeat. Most patients, though, are in their first trimester of pregnancy, when a fetal heartbeat is difficult to detect, Wheat said.

"This will have no impact on the rate of abortions in Texas," Wheat said. "These politicians think that women don't know anything about abortions when they come into the doctor's office, and that's false. They're just continually making hoops that women have to jump through."

Current requirements under Texas law for women seeking abortions include having to wait 24 hours between scheduling an abortion and having the procedure. Women are also given detailed medical information that maintains that abortion increases the risk of breast cancer, a theory that has been widely discredited by a number of institutions, including the National Cancer Institute.

Under the new bill, women would receive a pamphlet with this information in addition to being told it.

'All These Scare Tactics'

"If [Texas legislators] could ban safe and legal abortion tomorrow, they'd do it," Wheat said. "But they can't, so they try all these scare tactics. They're undermining the fact that most patients come into the office having already researched, already prayed, already talked with their families about having an abortion."

Chief among Senate bill 182's proponents is Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who staged a live ultrasound on a pregnant woman at a news conference in the Senate pressroom in February.

At the University of Texas Austin, a student group called Pro-Life Ambassadors also protested abortion recently with a display that included graphic images of aborted fetuses at every stage of development.

"We didn't want to come across as condemning anybody," said Amanda Ryniker, president of Pro-Life Ambassadors. "We wanted to get college students to engage in a conversation about when life starts and to talk about their views."

'Genocide'

The anti-abortion display was sponsored by Justice For All, a pro-life group that calls abortion "genocide" on its Web site. Ryniker said the ultrasound bill is something that people from all different viewpoints on abortion can support.

"I really like the idea," Ryniker said. "People from both sides of the issue can be on the same page with this because all the bill requires is that women make a more informed decision. I would hope that a woman would never find out too late some information that would have changed her mind."

Ryniker shares Perry's view that an ultrasound could have a deterrent effect on the rate of abortions in Texas.

'A Decision They Can Live With'

"The point of the bill is that women who aren't sure [whether to have an abortion] and don't know what's going on inside them and haven't connected with the baby inside of them can become more informed and make a decision they can live with," Ryniker said.

A University of Texas student who had an abortion last year but asked to remain anonymous called the proposal, requiring women to look at an ultrasound, unnecessary and insulting.

When she discovered she was 5-and-a-half weeks pregnant, she said, she made the informed choice to no longer remain pregnant. She viewed her doctor's appointment not as her final decision, but rather the result of a decision she had already made.

'A Simple Doctor's Appointment'

"In my mind, it had to be just a simple doctor's appointment," she said. "I had made up my mind and I don't regret it -- going to the doctor was not the most significant part of my experience."

Like Wheat, the student didn't believe that seeing her ultrasound or hearing the fetus's heartbeat would have changed her mind about the abortion. The idea of being required by law to see the fetus, she added, felt like an attempt to shame her into changing her mind.

"This would set a very dangerous and damaging precedent in Texas," Wheat said.