Pro-choice reporter gets voluntary transvaginal ultrasound

Megan Carpentier is a little behind the times on this one. Wasn't this news like a month ago? Anyways, she decides to get a transvaginal ultrasound at an abortion clinic in Ohio and then report on it.

The most notable item about the whole story is the "green" abortion clinic in Ohio where Carpentier went requires transvaginal ultrasounds at certain gestational periods even though Ohio doesn't have a law requiring ultrasounds.

Notably, Preterm has a policy of performing ultrasounds on all patients seeking abortion, though Ohio law does not yet require it. For medical reasons, they use ultrasound to confirm pregnancies (in case of false positives), rule out ectopic pregnancies and physically locate the gestational sac in order to perform better, safer abortions. Patients that do not wish to undergo a transvaginal ultrasounds early in their pregnancies can opt to return at a slightly later date, when they are far enough along (though not too far along for a first trimester abortion) to be able to visualize something on the ultrasound.

The whole controversy on this issue is so fabricated. For obvious medical reasons, abortion clinics do ultrasounds. When abortion clinics don't do ultrasounds it's probably because they're shady clinics who don't care if women are actually pregnant and don't care about the possibility/dangers of ectopic pregnancies. Since shady abortion clinics don't have a governing body which regulates them, it makes sense for the government to regulate them.