before, but that one got no national notice at all. in 2011, it was texas. and texas governor rick perry, he held a a big ceremonial signing event to usher in his state s forced vaginal ultrasound law. but it was met with no mainstream national outrage. unlike virginia, the republicans who put that law forward were not forced to defend it on national tv. it didn t attract so much attention that it derailed all the other things that they wanted to do, and they wanted to be known for. it didn t get made fun of on saturday night live. it did not attract a national political spotlight from people all over the country who were horrified by the idea of what they were doing, even though they did exactly the same thing as virginia. in 2011, that did not happen. but in 2012, it did. and that outrage in 2012 had far-reaching consequences. virginia first passed its first ultrasound bill on february 1st of last year. february 14th is when it started to get attention. up until that point, after t
its own version of the texas bill, these ultrasound laws were ready to go all across the country. and republican-controlled states all across the country, the anti-abortion movement had made sure these bills were poised to move. but once that attention on the virginia law started to burn a hole through bob mcdonnell s vice presidential ambitions, once what virginia was trying to do became a national story and a point of national political focus and ridicule, efforts to do the same thing in many of those other states just started to fall apart. by february 26th, less than two weeks after the uproar started over virginia s bill, alabama s governor, robert bentley was asked about the very similar forced ultrasound bill pending in his state. the very next day after the governor was asked on february 27th, the republican sponsor of that bill in alabama suddenly backed away from it, saying he was going to rewrite the bill to remove the vaginal probe requirement.
and that will not be handy if he ever tries to seek further political office after he is turfed out of the governorship this year. it was february of last year when virginia republicans got to work on what started out as a forced vaginal probe ultrasound bill. and for whatever reason, that bill in virginia got a lot of national attention. i have to ask you about this red-hot story that has gotten so much ink, so many women in particular fired up. you backed an abortion bill initially that included a very invasive procedure as part of an ultrasound that the state would have required. and then you backed off of that. were you wrong to support that initially, or did you simply back off because the political heat got turned up the way it did? governor, you ve gone through this with the person to debate and the ultrasound bill in virginia there is a feisty conversation going on right there. this is a bill, an abortion bill that would have mandated that women get what is called a tra
same policy had come up in a different state with an ambitious governor the year before, but that one got no national notice at all. in 2011, it was texas. and texas governor rick perry, he held a big ceremonial signing event to usher in his state s forced vaginal ultrasound law. but it was met with no mainstream national outrage. unlike virginia, the republicans who put that law forward were not forced to defend it on national tv. it didn t attract so much attention that it derailed all the other things that they wanted to do, and they wanted to be known for. it didn t get made fun of on saturday night live. it did not attract a national political spotlight from people all over the country who were horrified by the idea of what they were doing, even though they did exactly the same thing as virginia. in 2011, that did not happen. but in 2012, it did. and that outrage in 2012 had far-reaching consequences. virginia first passed its first ultrasound bill on february 1st of last year.
was steaming right along with its own version of the texas bill, these ultrasound laws were ready to go all across the country. and republican-controlled states all across the country, the anti-abortion movement had made sure these bills were poised to move. but once that attention on the virginia law started to burn a hole through bob mcdonnell s vice presidential ambitions, once what virginia was trying to do became a national story and a point of national political focus and ridicule, efforts to do the same thing in many of those other states just started to fall apart. by february 26th, less than two weeks after the uproar started over virginia s bill, alabama s governor, robert bentley was asked about the very similar forced ultrasound bill pending in his state. the very next day after the governor was asked on february 27th, the republican sponsor of that bill in alabama suddenly backed away from it, saying he was going to rewrite the bill to remove the vaginal probe requirement.