"I don't have any problem with ultrasound."
Of course you wouldn't, Scott Walker.
After all, your office lends you authority on a whole variety of topics. Being the Governor of Wisconsin, you have responsibility for the well-being of 2,864,586 women and girls. Surely, you have learned everything one can about what is medically necessary--or just plain good--for them. So, of course, you support a bill that would require women seeking abortions to undergo ultrasound.
With all due respect, I would like to know how you came upon such knowledge. Did you read medical journals? Or did you do some--how can I say this?--field research?
If you did, you realize that for some women, mostly those in their first trimester of pregnancy--which, of course, is when women usually seek abortions--a transvaginal probe is necessary in order to perform the ultrasound.
Being a man, I suppose you could be forgiven for not knowing that--or what it's like to have anything harder than human flesh thrust into you. Sometimes even flesh hurts, so you can only imagine what metal or hard plastic are like.
That's the thing, Mr. Governor: You can only imagine. Again, I do not want to excoriate you for that: After all, it has to do with the way you're put together. But since you can imagine, I'm asking you to do so. If you can't imagine how it feels, imagine such an object stuck into your wife, your daughter, your mother.
You don't want to imagine that? I understand. All the more reason to re-think your position on the bill. Now, I know that you're a conservative, so I can understand (but not agree with) your desire to close one of your state's last remaining abortion clinics. But, please, don't confuse conservativism--a perfectly respectable philosophy--with misogyny.
And please, whatever you do, learn as much as you can about medical issues before passing laws on them. Even if your mother, wife or daughter have never had--and never will have--an abortion, think about the transvaginal probe. Better yet, try to imagine how it would feel.
Of course you wouldn't, Scott Walker.
After all, your office lends you authority on a whole variety of topics. Being the Governor of Wisconsin, you have responsibility for the well-being of 2,864,586 women and girls. Surely, you have learned everything one can about what is medically necessary--or just plain good--for them. So, of course, you support a bill that would require women seeking abortions to undergo ultrasound.
With all due respect, I would like to know how you came upon such knowledge. Did you read medical journals? Or did you do some--how can I say this?--field research?
If you did, you realize that for some women, mostly those in their first trimester of pregnancy--which, of course, is when women usually seek abortions--a transvaginal probe is necessary in order to perform the ultrasound.
Being a man, I suppose you could be forgiven for not knowing that--or what it's like to have anything harder than human flesh thrust into you. Sometimes even flesh hurts, so you can only imagine what metal or hard plastic are like.
That's the thing, Mr. Governor: You can only imagine. Again, I do not want to excoriate you for that: After all, it has to do with the way you're put together. But since you can imagine, I'm asking you to do so. If you can't imagine how it feels, imagine such an object stuck into your wife, your daughter, your mother.
You don't want to imagine that? I understand. All the more reason to re-think your position on the bill. Now, I know that you're a conservative, so I can understand (but not agree with) your desire to close one of your state's last remaining abortion clinics. But, please, don't confuse conservativism--a perfectly respectable philosophy--with misogyny.
And please, whatever you do, learn as much as you can about medical issues before passing laws on them. Even if your mother, wife or daughter have never had--and never will have--an abortion, think about the transvaginal probe. Better yet, try to imagine how it would feel.
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