In a world of massive economic uncertainty, droughts, famines, overpopulation, coupled with a growing trend to marginalize women, the abortion issue rears its head, again. Perhaps the abortion issue should be left to the doctor and the patient. Amusing how the conservatives all decry the ever-encroaching and all-powerful government and turn around and insist that a woman not be given the opportunity to decide for herself how to live, but rather, they deem that the government should be in charge of a woman's body.

Hypocrites.

this is terrible. why do men have any right to tell a women she cannot have an abortion without hearing the heartbeat? government needs to stay out of a womens reproductive right. is the man that made her pregnant going to be forced to be a father, support & have positive interactions with the child. yeah try to force that. I think education and information should be provided but not this. If things like this keep happening we are going to see a lot of illegal abortions with a high rate of death for the women.....which will lead to a higher death rate for the fetus...

What if the woman is deaf?

So go and get some really good ear plugs. Don't watch the sonogram. Use the earplugs while the positioning and the heartbeat and the la la la la la la.....is being described. Make sure you have a doctor who won't scream out the description.

Must be awful to have to go through this out of medical necessity - did anyone think about that? Your baby - who you want to live - is not going to because you have cancer or some other condition. And now if you live in Texas you have to go through this procedure that basically pours salt in the wound.

Somebody please enlighten me. How on earth is it legal to force someone to have any medical procedure (or whatever the process of having a sonogram is called)? Is there legal precedent for that? If there is, I'm not aware of it. If not, how did this law pass? Any lawyers or doctors on here who can answer that for me?

I also wonder: Does the general public (especially anti-choice people) realize that sonograms performed to look at a woman's internal sex organs aren't just done over the belly? That's just part of the procedure. In order for them to see everything, they need to do it transvaginally. I know this because I had to have one for an ovarian cyst. They stick an instrument in the vagina and move it all around so they can see everything. It was extremely unpleasant. Is this what they're forcing on women who are seeking the constitutionally protected procedure of abortion?