New Dominion?

Today in Richmond about 1,000 people - some men, but mostly women - descended on the State Capital Grounds to silently protest the a law passed two weeks that restricts a woman's ability to make decisions for her own reproductive rights.

I wonder if they covered their faces so that their mothers wouldn't know what they were doing?

The law requires that any women seeking an abortion have an abdominal ultrasound - which she must pay for - prior to having the abortion.  The original bill required an ultrasound to determine the gestational age of the fetus.  Apparently the proponents did not know/understand that in the first trimester a traditional abdominal ultrasound does not work to determine fetal age.  The only way to accomplish that is a trans-vaginal ultrasound.  That is, an ultrasound probe that is inserted thru the vagina.  After a demonstration last week, that requirement was dropped, and the abdominal procedure ("jelly on the belly") specified.

A second law that would have given "personhood" to a fertilized egg was tabled until next year.

Apparently those protesters who were arrested had seated themselves on the steps of the Capital - silently - and failed to leave when asked by Capital Police to do so.  At that point riot police with tear gas and rifles were called in to establish "order".

I thought we fought these battles in the late 1970's and early 1980's.  I'm sorry I didn't know about the rally in time.   I would have been more than willing to be arrested for this issue.

Update:  I have now seen some film of the event and learned that the protesters were not silent.  They did not appear to be putting anyone in danger; merely shouting slogans and chanting.  They have been charged with "unlawful assembly".  Isn't there something in the Constitution about a "right to assemble"?

Today's thought From the Garden Bench is that this is a clock that we do not need to turn backward.