Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) signed a mandatory ultrasound bill into law last month, which will require all women who have an abortion in the state to have an ultrasound first, after backing off his earlier support for a more far-reaching version of the bill that would have required a more invasive ultrasound.

Despite his opposition to “invasive” TSA pat-downs, McDonnell still agreed with requiring women to undergo an additional medical prodecure because they “have a right to know” all available medical information before making a decision.

But his focus on a woman’s right to know ignores that the bill adds an unfunded, unnecessary burden for women seeking an abortion. In an interview with Bloomberg’s All Hunt, McDonnell stood by his “right to know” line without addressing if the law was a mandate:

MCDONNELL: The truth is that in almost all the cases already these ultrasounds are already required for medical reasons. [...] The important part, really, is to be able to show the woman the ultrasound along with all the medical information. [...]

HUNT: Suppose she and her doctor don’t think that’s necessary. You would still mandate it, though, right?

MCDONNELL: Well, again, it’s in a fairly small minority cases where it’s not being performed. But this is the policy that the legislature set. I thought it was the right policy.

Watch here:

The additional requirement throws up another barrier for women who want to have an abortion in Virginia. This invasive law, along with burdensome and expensive state regulations on abortion clinics, are Republican lawmakers’ attempts to limit women’s access to abortion procedures by making it difficult or forcing clinics to close.

Twenty of Virginia’s 23 abortion clinics affected by the new regulations that have gone into place reported that they already meet or will comply with the standards, such as larger hallways, bigger parking lots, and certain health and cooling controls. But complying with the standards was expensive, costing the clinics betweeen $150,000 to $3 million a piece. “These are difficult economic times,” Laura Meyers, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Metropolitan Washington, told the Washington Examiner. “To put more onerous regulations on health care providers that are not necessary seems very counterproductive.”

In November of 2010, Gov. Bob McDonnell (R-VA) joined the public outcry against the Transportation Security Administration’s (TSA) security precautions in airports by describing body scans and mandatory pat downs as crossing “the line” in regard “to people’s concerns about privacy” and “beneath the dignity” of air travelers. But just two months later, the anti-abortion McDonnell had no problem violating women’s privacy and freedom to make medical decisions by throwing his support behind a measure that originally required women seeking abortions to undergo ultrasounds in which a wand is inserted into the vagina.

Following a public outcry, McDonnell revised the measure to exempt women from the more invasive procedure, but not before encountering the wit of comedian Jon Stewart, who characterized the bill as “a TSA pat-down inside their vagina.” McDonnell addressed the contradiction between supporting mandatory ultrasounds for women and opposing “invasive” TSA pat downs during a radio interview this morning on WTOP and claimed that there is no comparison between the legislation and the enhanced security procedures:

MCDONNELL: There are things that are required in the interest of public safety, like TSA procedures. There are ways to accomplish the same result without an invasive patdown. [...]

I believe this is something that respects the dignity of women by making sure they have necessary information.

And while McDonnell has regularly attacked President Obama’s health care reform plan as an unfunded mandate, he brushed off concerns that the ultrasound bill would create an unfunded mandate for women. He described the ultrasound as a necessary mandate that provides women with more information before having an abortion. “If there are legitimate mandates for health and safety, obviously I’m for those,” he explained.

The ultrasound bill passed the Senate earlier this afternoon and now heads to McDonnell for his signature.

When a woman in Alabama seeks an abortion procedure, she already has to sign that her doctor has performed an ultrasound and that she either viewed the ultrasound image or rejected seeing it. But state Sen. Clay Scofield (R) is pushing SB 12, a bill in the Alabama legislature that would mandate the physician “to perform an ultrasound, provide verbal explanation of the ultrasound, and display the images to the pregnant woman before performing an abortion.” The physician could also require the woman to submit to a transvaginal ultrasound — “in which a probe is inserted into the vagina, and then moved around until an ultrasound image is produced” — if she or he determines it necessary.

A Senate committee voted 4-1 on Friday to approve the measure, and the state Senate is expected to vote on it early this week. Even though studies have proven that viewing an ultrasound does not lead women to not have abortions, the bill’s sponsor says he hopes it will:

Scofield said he hopes that, if signed into law, his bill will stop some abortions. Though the bill states a woman can look away from the ultrasound image, Scofield wants her to see it.

“So she sees that this is not just a clump of cells as she is told,” he said. “She will see the shape of the infant. And hopefully, she will choose to keep the child.”

The bill wouldn’t require an ultrasound if an abortion is necessary to save a woman’s life, but it does not allow the victims of sexual assault to opt out of viewing the ultrasound.

Last week, Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell backed away from supporting the same measure after almost 1,000 women protested the measure and national media mocked the extreme bill. He explained that he backtracked after the state’s attorney general told him that “these kinds of mandatory invasive requirements might run afoul of Fourth Amendment law.” The Virginia House and a Senate committee have passed the ultrasound bill with substitute language from the governor that would not require women to receive a transvaginal ultrasound.

Women’s health care has dominated political discussions as GOP-controlled state legislatures consider legislation to extremely curtail women’s access to abortions and right-wing leaders claim the Obama administration is infringing on religious liberty for requiring employer insurance plans to cover contraception at no charge (even though accommodations exempt churches and religiously affiliated institutions).

But it seems that some Republicans think their party has gone too far. Yesterday, Virginia legislators backed away from a “personhood” measure and the state’s conservative governor removed his support for an extreme ultrasound bill. Even Pat Buchanan, a leader on social issues within the party and a former GOP presidential candidate, this morning warned that Republicans like Rick Santorum are overreaching in their opposition to contraception.

On C-SPAN’s Washington Journal, Buchanan described the debate over contraception as “beyond the political realm”:

I think if you get down into where [Santorum's] been discussing it on the merits and demerits of contraception…that’s a moral issue. [...] We talked about that in college endlessly, but I think you move into an area where people don’t understand yet and where it’s beyond the political realm. And I think that’s where Santorum has gone and gotten himself. He’s gotten himself tied up in some of these arguments, and I don’t think he’s handled them with clarity.

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And Buchanan weighed in on the ultrasound legislation from which Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) had backtracked earlier this week. “I can understand why McDonnell did what he did,” he said. “To support that invasive procedure would probably politically costly undeniably, and Gov. McDonnell is not a foolish politician.”

When even Buchanan, who has his own history of extreme opinions, thinks it’s a wise move to back away from an anti-abortion measure, social conservatives have gone too far in their opposition to women’s health.

Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) disputed the notion that he’s spending too much time legislating social policy during this morning Politico forum, as he continued to distance himself from a measure that would have required women to undergo an invasive transvaginal ultrasound before receiving an abortion. Under the proposed policy, most women seeking seeking an abortion would have been forced to have a procedure, “in which a probe is inserted into the vagina, and then moved around until an ultrasound image is produced.”

The governor explained that he has focused on “getting our budgets under control” and “jobs,” not social policy, and claimed that he hadn’t read the original provision before publicly endorsing it. McDonnell also added that Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, a conservative powerhouse within the Republican party, advised him that the measure was unconstitutional:

MCDONNELL: We realized there were different kinds of ultrasounds and so what I recommended to the General Assembly, and they adopted the other day, is let’s make the requirement for the abdominal ultrasound… I also got legal advice from various people, including my Attorney General, that these kinds of mandatory invasive requirements might run afoul of Fourth Amendment law. So those were the reasons…After talking to lawyers and doctors on my own, after we started hearing some concerns int he legislature, I personally looked at it. I mean, normally a governor would review these hundreds of hundreds of bills when they get to your desk. You’re so busy advocating your own agenda, you don’t read every legislator’s bill. But I was certainly supportive of that concept.

Watch it:

Until the bill attracted national media attention and frustrated some in the Republican party, however, “McDonnell and his aides had said the governor would sign the measure if it made it to his desk.” Since then, he issued a statement claiming that “Mandating an invasive procedure in order to give informed consent is not a proper role for the state” and offered an amendment that would not force women to receive the procedure. Studies have shown that viewing an ultrasound does not change a woman’s mind before an abortion and only adds to the cost of the procedure.

The Virginia House and a Senate committee have passed the ultrasound bill with the governor’s substitute language.