Sen. Lindsey Graham is all up in American’s reproductive parts. Not only is the senator’s proposed 15-week abortion ban an invasion of our health and privacy, but it could also come along with a highly invasive procedure to boot.
NBC News reports that because Graham’s measure involves the criminalization of doctors who provide abortions after 15 weeks (except in the cases of rape or incest), practitioners say they would likely have to perform a transvaginal ultrasound to determine fetal age.
Karen Tang, a gynecologic surgeon in Pennsylvania, tells NBC, “With just the liability riding on it, a lot of gynecologists may lean toward things like the ultrasounds because they want to cover themselves,” adding that in the early stages of pregnancy, these procedures are "almost always done transvaginally.”
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Ben Hamar, a maternal-fetal medicine specialist in Massachusetts, says because the “ultrasound is only so accurate,” doctors may be less inclined to perform abortions for fear of incorrectly determining the fetal age. The procedure can only assess age within about two weeks.
Even though most of the GOP has not been on board with Graham’s ban, adamantly claiming they believe abortion laws should be left in the hands of the states, the South Carolina Republican continues to double down on his extremist views.
Graham’s position has only recently changed, at least in public. Until just last month, the senator himself had also said that abortion access should be determined by individual states. Then he announced his national ban proposal, which recharacterized 15 weeks’ gestation as a “late-term” pregnancy.
“This is not a states’ rights issue. This is a human right issue,” Graham recently said during an appearance on Fox News. “At 15 weeks, a baby sucks its thumb, at 20 weeks, you’re encouraged to sing to a child. … I don’t care what California does on most things. I care here. I am not going to sit on the sidelines in Washington, D.C., and tell the ‘pro-life’ community Washington is closed for business.”
As Daily Kos’ Laura Clawson writes:
“Thumb-sucking at or earlier than 15 weeks is not a sign the brain is anywhere close to fully developed: According to What to Expect, ‘the brainstem, which controls vital functions like heart rate and breathing, isn’t mostly complete until the end of the second trimester, and the cerebral cortex doesn’t take up its duties until the third trimester.’”
Graham’s proposal will almost certainly fall flat in the House and the Senate.
According to Pew Research Center data, 6 in ten, or 61%, of Americans believe abortion should be legal.
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