But It's All Okay Because Obama's Protecting Roe

[Trigger warning for sexual assault.]

More heinous legislation at the state level, as anti-choicers chip away at abortion rights:

The Oklahoma Senate passed five abortion bills Monday night, which opponents have said will severely limit a woman's ability to get an abortion and would entail some of the strictest anti-abortion measures in the country.

One of the bills would force a woman to get an ultrasound at least one hour prior to an abortion and be shown the image and given a detailed explanation of it, even if she wishes otherwise. A vaginal probe would be used if it would provide a clearer image of the fetus, which no other state requires; three others do require ultrasounds, but none force the woman to listen to an explanation of it.

I'm not even going to mince words on this one: Compelling a woman to undergo an unnecessary vaginal probe to acquire a legal medical procedure is fucking rape. There isn't anyone on the planet who can convince me that any women should have to exchange unrelated access to her vagina for any legal medical procedure, including abortion, which itself doesn't even require vaginal access in every case anymore.

And frankly, any argument along the lines of "Well, a woman submitting her vagina for an abortion shouldn't complain about being compelled to submit it for a vaginal ultrasound probe" isn't materially different from the rape apologia that goes, "Well, any woman who consented to being fingered shouldn't complain about being compelled to have penis-in-vagina sex."

It's like the authors of this bill just figure that getting an abortion should equal permission to "root around in there" for any reason. It's. so. gross.

State Sen. Anthony Sykes (R-Moore), the bill's sponsor, said the measure was designed to provide women with additional information before having an abortion.

I can't even deal with one more asinine male legislator proposing ultrasound legislation under the auspices of helping women make an informed decision. Seriously, women are not infants. They don't need your "help."

And I note that, once again, the ultrasound is a mandate, not an offer. It's not like women can turn down the opportunity to get "additional information." So, not so much "helping" as "forcing," then.

One last bill would require the woman to first answer a lengthy questionnaire and provide information such as her age, marital status, race, education and reason for seeking an abortion. The doctor would then report this information - without the patient's name attached, however - which would be compiled and put on a state web site and accessible only by certain government personnel.

I just don't even know what to say anymore.

[H/T to Elle. Recent Related Reading: Chip, Chip, Chip; Have I Mentioned...; The Anti-Choice Whittling Strategy; How Could a Feminist Even CONSIDER Not Voting Democratic?!]