Here’s a rotten piece of legislation: the Virginia Senate has passed a bill requiring women to undergo an ultrasound examination prior to an abortion. The bill includes language saying that the procedure is to “to determine gestation age”, but that is surely a red herring; obviously the measure is an attempt to confront women with the living fetus they are proposing to snuff out, in an effort to shame them into carrying it to term.
Abortion is, in my opinion, the most philosophically difficult legal issue there is, and there are defensible opinions on both sides. But this is pure and insulting nannyism. The law should rule on the legality of the procedure itself, and nothing more — and respect the autonomy of women, at the very least, to make up their own minds without bullying.