Can I just add one more question about abortion?

I think it would be wrong to force a women to view the ultrasound. The decision to get an abortion is an incredibly difficult one. Most women know exactly what they're doing and getting the abortion might be the only viable option for them, but that doesn't mean they need to make the whole ordeal more difficult for themselves by seeing the fetus and making themselves feel even more guilty. The vast majority of women who get an abortion go through guilt and remorse afterwords because they do understand what they've done, it was simply the best decision for them at the time.

I had an abortion done at planned parenthood and they certainly never told me it was only tissue being removed. They informed me that I would be expelling pregnancy tissue along with the fetus. And they also gave me the option of seeing the ultra sound and finding out whether it was twins or not. They give you the option so if you want to know you can, but if it is simply going to make the whole ordeal more difficult for someone and they are going to make the same decision anyway it is unnecessary to make the whole ordeal more difficult on them. It is simply cruel.

I am well aware, of what a fetus looks like via an ultrasound. I am the sole parent of a beautiful 5 year old girl. If I found myself pregnant to an unsuitable person, I like to think, that I could have an abortion. As the last thing on earth I want is to be a single parent to two children. That said, I am contraception conscious and have had no accidental pregnancies to date, I would also find the experience extremely difficult. I would not view the fetus, as I would not be able to go through with the abortion. Yes, it is murder, and yes, it sux, but sometimes, that is the choice a woman makes. It is her body, and her right. Noone should be forced to view an ultrasound, can you imagine how traumatic and abortion would be after having viewed images of your unborn child?! You need to respect the rights of women to proceed in the fashion that feels right for them.

Because there is no medical reason to do so. We don't require that anyone get any information dictated by the government before getting any other medical procedure other than standard consent forms. Doctors get to make those decisions not politicians. It also implies that women are too stupid to make their own choices unless we spoon feed them information. Many of us get insulted by that.

Anything before 8 weeks is an embryo and barely has a central nervous system. At 9 to 12 weeks movement is random and not directed by the brain. It's not a baby, it's the idea of a baby. At 11 or 12 weeks it kind of looks like a baby, but it doesn't have any more than basic brain stem functions. In a person we would call that "brain dead."

If a woman wants to look at her ultrasound before she gets an abortion that's fine and that is her decision. What is wrong is when people, and the government, force her to look at the ultrasound. No one should be able force someone to that if they chose not to. That is her right as to whether or not she wants to look it or not. Just like it is her right whether or not to have an abortion.

Because the sole intention of those pushing for this requirement is to increase the guilt and suffering of the woman facing that choice - there is no medical necessity nor humane motivation for the requirement. And it's a dishonest intention, because it's not like they're going to say "as long as they look at the ultrasound, I have no problem with them choosing to continue with an abortion." It's a two-pronged attack: frontal, trying to ban abortion entirely; from the flank, by whittling away at every little piece they can.

What is the purpose? They already made a choice THEY have to live with for a lifetime. Not you! They don't need people doing things just to hurt them further!

I bet you complain about people on welfare, and in this instance, are you paying for the ultra sound instead of MAKING HER GET IT! I didn't think so!

Stay out of other peoples business and their lives! You don't belong there! And you certainly do not speak for God!

People know what an abortion is as you are standing right outside the clinic calling them baby killers, which could not be further from the truth. A fetus is not a baby by any definition, legal or medical!

If you want the majority informed, put sex education and access to birth control in schools. Once pregnant is not a great time in teaching people about their bodies, is it? Abstinence, like they teach in Idaho, just isn't going to do a damn thing about peoples hormones!! It is a asinine approach to an issue like sexuality, which often you don't have a lot of control over it!

Let's not kid ourselves here. The pro-lifers want to make the ultrasound a requirement, but not because they want to provide you with all the information you need to make an informed decision. They want the mother to have an ultrasound in order to sway her to make her decision based on an emotional response. The ultrasound is designed to strip away all the reasons that you had for getting the abortion and have you decide on emotion alone.

OK, so I don't have a job or an education, the father dumped me, my parents kicked me out, I have no family to rely on, and I'm living in a shelter, but gosh-darn look at those fingers!

I've known women who had abortions. It was a VERY painful decision for them. Requiring an ultrasound is just one more way for the pro-lifers to inject a little more pain, a little more angst, a little more arm-wringing, one more twist of the knife.

And it's totally unnecessary.

I see nothing wrong with women having an ultrasound before getting an abortion.

So what do you think, that most people are getting abortions before the 8th grade? If they are having them after 8th grade, most of them have enough knowledge to know it is more than just a tissue, depending on when they are having it. Its called sex ed. Well unless they goto a catholic school , an in that case, maybe you shouldn't have been teaching them not to use birth control.

why should insurance companies have to pay for an ultrasound for every abortion recipient, so everyone else's insurance rates go up, just to make YOU feel better?

If they request to see it rather than having their arm twisted, that is a different story.

There are groups that do in fact give ultra sounds outside of abortion clinics. They do it in a non-judgmental way in order to help the mother make an informed decision.

God bless them and their work for what they are doing!