Is this hypocrisy? Is it cruelty? Is it stupidity? How about all of the above.
Earlier this month, Virginia passed a law that mandated that all women who want an abortion must have an ultrasound, whether they want to or not and whether their doctor believes it is medically necessary or not.
The Virginia State Senate passed its budget on Monday, and as part of the debate the Senate voted 20-19 (one Democrat voted with Republicans and one Republican, Sen. Jill Holtzman Vogel--who originally co-sponsored the ultrasound mandate--didn't vote) to reject an amendment that would have authorized $3 million to pay for the ultrasounds being done on low-income women and which would have compelled insurance companies to cover such procedures in their policies.
Logic would dictate that if the state is going to force a medical procedure on women, then it needs to ensure that those women don't have to pay for it. Logic. What a quaint notion. We'll see what happens when the two houses of the Virginia legislature get together to negotiate a single budget.
We can and should put pressure on legislators in Virginia. You can check out the Virginia Progressive Caucus here. But if the Virginia budget doesn't fix this, well, that would just stink.