Among the testimony at this morning's continuing hearing on the pre-abortion ultrasound bill:

Betsy McBride of the League of Women Voters told the senators, "If an ultrasound procedure is not medically necessary, the Legislature should not require that a doctor or an ultrasound technologist perform such a procedure against the will of the patient. This bill is not a bill to promote women's health. It is an attempt to force doctor to follow political ideologies rather than provide needed reproductive health care. The League urges the Senate State Affairs Committee to recognize that there is no legitimate reason to endorse this bill, which is an assault on Idaho women's right to privacy."

Ardvell Bajema of Fruitland displayed pictures of aborted fetuses to the committee. "Human life begins at conception and ... abortion is murder," he said. He questioned suggestions that a transvaginal ultrasound would be invasive, saying, "Yet a woman will allow an abortionist who she doesn't even know to go up her vagina and get her baby for an abortion. ... How can abortion be reproductive rights when it's such a destructive wrong? ... The uterus is meant to be a safe haven for a baby, not a death chamber."

Adrienne Evans told the senators the bill "seeks to target and strip women of their fundamental rights. ... We must call this what it is ... imposing the moral religious doctrine of the radical conservatives in this country who do not value the privacy or personhood of its citizens."

Pam Reeder, a registered diagnostic medical sonographer who works in high-risk obstetrics, spoke against the bill. "This is very, very private," she said. "This is between the patient and her physician." She said a transvaginal ultrasound is indicated beyond six weeks gestation and less than 10. "That is when you're going to want to do a vaginal ultrasound," she said. Reeder said the purpose of ultrasounds is to examine specific organs of the fetus, not to provide a picture.

Hannah Brass of Planned Parenthood told the senators the bill "serves to demean and shame women." She said, "Forcing women to undergo a medical procedure for political and not medical reasons is the very definition of government intrusion."