DSCC Statement On Senate Republicans’ Abortion Ban Forcing Women To Undergo “Invasive” Ultrasounds

In response to new reporting detailing how Senate Republicans’ national abortion ban would “force many women to undergo invasive transvaginal ultrasounds before terminating pregnancies” as doctors fear that “physicians could be prosecuted,” Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee spokesperson Nora Keefe issued the following statement:

“Senate Republicans’ national abortion ban would impose cruel, new punishments on women and families and even charge doctors with a crime if they perform an abortion. For Americans of every political persuasion who believe women should be able to make our own health care decisions, the stakes of protecting and expanding our Democratic Senate Majority in November have never been higher.”

Read the new reporting here:

NBC News: Doctors say Graham abortion ban would force women to have transvaginal ultrasounds
By Jonathan Allen
September 20, 2022

• Sen. Lindsey Graham’s national 15-week abortion ban would likely force many women to undergo invasive transvaginal ultrasounds before terminating pregnancies, according to doctors.

• Under the bill, which Graham introduced last week, physicians could be prosecuted for terminating pregnancies after 15 weeks.

• Doctors would be on the hook to ask each patient about the timing of her pregnancy “and perform or cause to perform such medical examinations and tests” as needed to “make an accurate determination of gestational age.”

• Because violations of Graham’s proposed 15-week ban would be punishable by up to five years in prison, doctors say the legislation would create a powerful incentive to perform trans-vaginal ultrasounds to make an age judgment.

• “With just the liability riding on it, a lot of gynecologists may lean toward things like the ultrasounds because they want to cover themselves,” said Karen Tang, a gynecologic surgeon in Pennsylvania. The most accurate medical exams for assessing gestational age are ultrasounds, she added, and they are “almost always done trans-vaginally” in the early months of pregnancy.

• Even then, said Ben Hamar, a maternal fetal medicine specialist in Massachusetts, uncertainty around gestational age estimates, which can range as much as a couple of weeks, means the Graham bill would have a “chilling effect” on doctors, making them less likely to terminate pregnancies within a week or two of the 15-week mark.

• In New Hampshire, Republican Senate nominee Don Bolduc, who opposes federal lawmaking on abortion, raised eyebrows Sunday when he said in a local interview that Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., is out of step with state voters because she supports abortion rights and that she should “get over it.” Polls show that most of the state’s voters consider themselves “pro-choice.”

• Graham’s abortion ban has won the support of Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., who is running for re-election; Rep. Ted Budd, R-N.C., who is seeking a Senate seat in his state; and GOP Senate nominees Herschel Walker in Georgia and Blake Masters in Arizona.

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