Twelve states have an ultrasound-related requirement built into their abortion laws. This means that the doctor is required to perform an ultrasound, and in some cases must ask the patient to view it. Disregard for the moment that an ultrasound requirement can add up to $200 to the already high cost of getting an abortion; what’s even more distressing is that this requirement assumes, yet again, that women don’t understand what an abortion is. And the reasoning behind the ultrasound requirement is definitely not coming from a place of informed consent. Its purpose is to shame women into thinking that if they really knew they were getting an abortion—“killing” a “separate” being—they wouldn’t have one.
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Jessica Valenti, The Purity Myth
Note: This was published in 2010, so I’m sure that number is different now.
