Because Sen. Graham's bill requires a doctor to determine fetal age before an abortion and threatens jail time, physicians say invasive transvaginal ultrasounds will often be necessary.
Julie Burkhart, co-owner of the Hope Clinic For Women, holds a transducer to perform transvaginal ultrasounds in Granite City, Ill.Jonathan Allen
Under the bill, which Graham introduced last week, physicians could be prosecuted for terminating pregnancies after 15 weeks, except in a handful of scenarios: to save the life of the mother or in cases where the pregnant woman or girl has previously reported that the pregnancy resulted from rape or incest.
"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 transvaginally" in the early months of pregnancy.
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