Yes, it's a sad commentary on the state of American politics that we had to poll this question in the first place, but here is the good news: a majority of Americans oppose state-mandated rape.
Public Policy Polling for Daily Kos & SEIU. 2/23-26. Registered voters. MoE ±3.1% (no trendlines):
Q: Would you support or oppose a law requiring women to receive a transvaginal ultrasound before getting an abortion?
Support: 23
Oppose: 52
Not sure: 24
That would be the
bill passed earlier this month by the Virginia House, requiring women seeking an abortion to first submit to a state-mandated rape-by-probe—for their own good, of course, because otherwise, they might not understand there's a baby in that there womb. Because women are, according to the pro-rape legislators of Virginia,
that stupid.
Fortunately, most people in the state and around the country took the oh-so-radical position of opposing state-mandated rape, leading Republican Gov. Bob McDonnell, who had promised to sign it into law, to back away from the bill, quickly followed by the legislature bravely postponing the vote.
Despite such less-than-persuasive arguments as CNN bobblehead and Andrew Breitbart protege Dana Loesch's insistence that rape-by-probe is no big deal, since women obviously enjoy vaginal penetration or they wouldn't be pregnant in the first place, those arguments failed to persuade a majority of Americans who think raping women might not be such good policy after all.
While Virginia seems to have learned its lesson, this hasn't stopped pro-rape legislators in other states—like Pennsylvania, Idaho, Michigan and Alabama—from flirting with the idea. (Although even Alabama legislators are having second thoughts, which should tell you everything you need to know about how extreme this is.) Given the unpopularity of state-mandated rape, maybe they should take a long hard look at the numbers so they can think about the consequences of their actions and what it would mean to enact rape requirements against the will of the American people. You know, because it seems they really are that stupid.