Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) is backing off of the controversial legislation that would require women to undergo a transvaginal ultrasound before getting an abortion, recommending that the legislature put in amendments to soften the bill and only require a transabdominal ultrasound instead. “Mandating an invasive procedure in order to give informed consent is not a proper role for the state,” McDonnell said in a statement.

Over the past few days, Virginia lawmakers have been considering a bill that would require women to submit to a transvaginal or pelvic ultrasound before they can get an abortion, as part of “informed consent.”

The bill has been decried by pro-choice groups and Democrats as needlessly invasive and “akin to rape,” possibly even with criminal implications. Though the state Senate approved it by a vote of 21-18, the House twice delayed a vote on it in the midst of intense media scrutiny, protests outside the capitol and a petition signed by 25,000 people.

On Wednesday, McDonnell, who had previously said he would approve the bill, put out a statement reiterating his support for pro-life policies and informed consent laws, but essentially telling the legislature to back off.

“Over the past days I have discussed the specific language of the proposed legislation with other governors, physicians, attorneys, legislators, advocacy groups, and citizens,” McDonnell said. “It is apparent that several amendments to the proposed legislation are needed to address various medical and legal issues which have arisen. It is clear that in the majority of cases, a routine external, transabdominal ultrasound is sufficient to meet the bills stated purpose, that is, to determine gestational age.”

“Thus,” he continued, “having looked at the current proposal, I believe there is no need to direct by statute that further invasive ultrasound procedures be done. Mandating an invasive procedure in order to give informed consent is not a proper role for the state. No person should be directed to undergo an invasive procedure by the state, without their consent, as a precondition to another medical procedure.”

McDonnell said that as a result, he has recommended that the state Assembly include a series of amendments to the bill. “I am requesting that the General Assembly amend this bill to explicitly state that no woman in Virginia will have to undergo a transvaginal ultrasound involuntarily,” he said. “I am asking the General Assembly to state in this legislation that only a transabdominal, or external, ultrasound will be required to satisfy the requirements to determine gestational age.”

He added that only a doctor will be able to determine if another type of ultrasound is necessary, but “the government will have no role in that medical decision.”

Tarina Keene, Executive Director of NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia, told TPM that this is “not at all” a victory, despite the fact that McDonnell is touting it as a compromise. “As it still stands,” she said, “this bill is still a mandatory ultrasound. The government should have no role in this decision whether its internal or external.”

If he were really interested in a compromise, Keene said, “he would have made this go away, and at the very least he should have made it optional.”

The bill still “doesn’t give [a woman] any choice. It doesn’t give the doctor any choice. It puts up a barrier, saying that you have to concede to this procedure before you can access your constitutional right to an abortion,” said Keene.

Though the exact nature of the amendments is unclear, should the Assembly adopt McDonnell’s recommendations it would likely put Virgina in line with the seven other states that mandate an abortion provider perform an abdominal ultrasound before a woman can get an abortion, according to the Guttmacher Instittue. Those states also require that the provider “offer the women the opportunity to view the image.”

Read the full statement from McDonnell here.

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The Virginia House is due to vote Wednesday on a bill which would require women seeking an abortion to undergo an ultrasound. This is the final step before the bill arrives on the governor’s desk.

The bill requires that the ultrasound operation helps show the physical aspects of the fetus and also detects a heartbeat. Since most abortions are sought during the first 12 weeks of a pregnancy, when the fetus is little larger than a grain of rice, this means many women would not undergo a procedure like the one depicted in the picture above. Instead, they would be obliged to endure an invasive “transvaginal” procedure. This has led opponents of the bill – many of them Democrats – to decry it as “state-sponsored rape.”

This only adds to another controversial aspect of the bill: that unlike many laws which regulate abortion, Virginia’s does not contain exemptions for victims of rape or incest.

“For someone who’s already been victimized to do it again is just cruel and unusual punishment,” Tarina Keene, Executive Director of NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia, told TPM.

Several proponents of the bill have admitted have admitted that the procedure is invasive but justify it as no different from intercourse. CNN contributor and conservative blogger Dana Loesch objected to the idea that the bill is tantamount to state-sponsored rape, saying, “Wait a minute, they had no problem having similar to a trans-vaginal procedure when they engaged in the act that resulted in their pregnancy.” One GOP lawmaker in Virginia made the same argument, that the woman already decided to be “vaginally penetrated when they got pregnant.” The bill, like these proponents of it, doesn’t take into account that not all pregnancies come out of consensual sex.

The bill has been garnering negative attention and even protests over the past few weeks, and there are signs Republicans are feeling uneasy about passing the bill in its current form. The Washington Post reported Wednesday that Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell — a national figure and contender for the GOP’s vice presidential nomination — has backed off his unflinching support for the bill. Keene told TPM’s Jillian Rayfield that she is more hopeful now than before that some sort of compromise, possibly one that makes the ultrasound optional, could be reached.

Image from Alexander Raths/ Shutterstock

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Virginia legislators are considering two bills that would create harsh restrictions on abortions. One of the measures, Democrats say, is “akin to rape.” But there are signs that some Republicans may be having second thoughts.

A personhood bill passed out of the Virignia state House by a vote of 66-32 last week, and “provides that unborn children at every stage of development enjoy all the rights, privileges, and immunities available to other persons, citizens, and residents of the Commonwealth.” Introduced by Republican Delegate Bob Marshall (he of the health care reform is “economic rape” comment), the bill is now in the Senate Education and Health Committee, where Republicans hold a one-vote majority.

Personhood laws, aside from limiting abortions, also could impact women’s access to birth control, and place limits on procedures like in vitro fertilization. Tarina Keene, Executive Director of NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia, said in a statement that the implications could be even more far-reaching. “With the word ‘person’ appearing more than 25,000 times in the Virginia code, single-minded legislators are about to run this Commonwealth off a cliff as well as eradicating women’s health and rights.”

The second bill would require women to have an invasive procedure called a transvaginal or pelvic ultrasound before they could get an abortion, as part of “informed consent.” Additionally, the bill requires a 24-hour waiting period after the procedure, in addition to one already mandated by the state. In other words, if the bill passed there would be a waiting period, followed by the ultrasound, followed by a waiting period, before a woman could get an abortion.

Keene told TPM that this “could actually require three trips to the doctor’s office” for an abortion. “It is setting up another barrier that way.” She added that the bill is “particularly egregious in that they don’t even have an exception for rape and incest victims.”

Kathy Byron, the Republican Delegate who sponsored the bill, explained on the House floor: “This may be the most important decision that she ever makes in her life. A tough decision. And we determined over a decade ago that we were going to ensure that a woman has a right to have all the information available to her before making that decision.”

Democrats, however, have been playing up the fact that the procedure could amount to an actual criminal act. David Englin, a Democrat who opposes the bill, argued: “Object sexual penetration is a serious sex crime in Virginia. It is very difficult to look at the bill and look at the OSP statute together and think that you are not asking doctors to commit a sex crime.”

“Consent is a key element in the criminal statute, and there is no consent required in the ultrasound statute,” he said.

Charniele Herring, another Democrat, said: “What’s before us is akin to rape. The bill requires a transvaginal ultrasound and for that to happen without any appropriate medical purpose. The OSP that says if you insert something in somebody without their consent or without a bona fide medical purpose it is a criminal act. The proponents of the bill have not come up with a legitimate medical purpose.”

So far the ultrasound bill has passed out of the state Senate by a vote of 21-18 — but the House delayed a vote on it for the second time on Tuesday. Though it was initially expected to pass the Republican-controlled chamber, with Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) saying he would sign it, there is some indication that Republicans are having second thoughts.

For one thing, the polls are not on their side. A recent poll in Virginia by Christopher Newport University/Richmond Times-Dispatch found that 55% of Virginia voters polled oppose the ultrasound measure, compared with 36% who support it.

Opponents of the bill flocked to Richmond on Monday to protest, and the Associated Press reports that police estimated the crowd to be about 1000-1500 people. This came after almost 25,000 others signed a petition in opposition to the personhood amendment.

For another thing, according to Keene, of NARAL, the recent media attention might be making legislators a little uneasy. There’s “definitely some stuff going on behind the scenes,” Keene told TPM. “They seem to be squirming a little bit.”

According to the Virginian-Pilot: “Two legislators — one a conservative Republican — speaking today on the condition of anonymity said one idea officials have discussed is making the ultrasound legislation optional rather than mandatory.”

Keene said she has also heard that “there might be an amendment in the works to take the mandate away,” so that the bill would “not have the impact that it has right now.”

“I’m feeling more hopeful than I was at the opening day of session when I thought all hope was lost,” she said.

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Next time you buy a box of Tagalongs, you might be helping to fund an abortion.

Or, at least, that’s what one Republican lawmaker in Indiana might have you believe. State Rep. Bob Morris (R) wants to kill a resolution honoring the Girl Scouts because they are a “radicalized organization” that promotes “homosexual lifestyles” and funds Planned Parenthood.

In a letter to his fellow Republicans on Saturday, Morris said he would refuse to support a resolution celebrating 100 years of the organization because “after talking to some well-informed constituents, I did a small amount of web-based research, and what I found is disturbing.”

The letter, obtained by the Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette, says that the Girl Scouts of America and the World Association of Girl Guides “have entered into a close strategic affiliation with Planned Parenthood,” though “you will not find evidence of this on the GSA/WAGGGS website–in fact, the websites of these two organizations explicitly deny funding Planned Parenthood.”

“Nonetheless, abundant evidence proves that the agenda of Planned Parenthood includes sexualizing young girls through the Girl Scouts, which is quickly becoming a tactical arm of Planned Parenthood,” Morris wrote. “Planned Parenthood instructional series and pamphlets are part of the core curriculum at GSA training seminars.”

He continues that the Girl Scouts also let in boys “who decide to claim a ‘transgender’ or cross-dressing life-style” and, in general, promote being gay. “Many parents are abandoning the Girl Scouts because they promote homosexual lifestyles,” Morris said. “In fact, the Girl Scouts education seminar girls are directed to study the example of role models. Of the fifty role models listed, only three have a briefly-mentioned religious background – all the rest are feminists, lesbians, or Communists.”

“As members of the Indiana House of Representatives, we must be wise before we use the credibility and respect of the ‘Peoples’ House’ to extend legitimacy to a radicalized organization,” he continued. “The Girl Scouts of America stand in a strong tradition that reflects with fidelity the traditional values of our homes and our families.”

Cathy Ritchie, of the Girl Scouts of Central Indiana, laughed off Morris when she heard about his letter. “I think perhaps he hasn’t done all of his research,” Ritchie told Eagle Country Online. “There is no relationship between Girls Scouts of the U.S.A. or Girl Scouts of Central Indiana to Planned Parenthood.”

Morris was the only one to refuse to sign the resolution, the Associated Press reports.

This is not the first time the Girl Scouts have been accused of a nefarious liberal agenda. In December, Fox News and some right-wing bloggers charged them with being part of a lefty conspiracy because of a section in the Girl Scouts’ media guide that advises readers to use sites like MediaMatters (“clearly a lefty blog,” as Steve Doocy of Fox & Friends put it) to fact-check what they read on the Internet.

Image from maximino / Shutterstock

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Republicans in Mississippi are hoping that second time’s a charm for a “Personhood” amendment.

This week, a Republican lawmaker in Mississippi’s House of Representatives introduced a measure to get an initiative on the November ballot that would ask voters to amend the state’s Constitution “to provide that the right to life is a fundamental right and ‘person’ applies to all humans from conception.”

House Concurrent Resolution 61 would “provide that the right to life is the paramount and most fundamental right of a person; to provide that the world ‘person’ applies to all human beings from conception to natural death.”

Personhood bills effectively outlaw abortion, and, depending on the language, make illegal certain types of birth control and even in vitro fertilization.

Mississippi’s new measure seems written to address those concerns, with the language “certain activities that are not affected or prohibited by this section, including contraception or birth control not killing a person, in vitro fertilization or other methods of reproduction, medical treatment intended to preserve life, or miscarriage.”

HC 61, nicknamed “The Right to Life Amendment of 2012,” was co-authored by three Republicans and one Democrat, none of whom immediately returned TPM’s request for comment. It was referred to the House Constitution Committee.

In November of last year, voters in the state soundly rejected a similar Personhood measure, by a margin of 58%-42%.

In a Facebook posting, Les Riley, the head of Personhood Mississippi, called for supporters to act on behalf of the legislation in response to a Planned Parenthood press release in opposition to it. Riley wondered: “Do they have more enthusiasm to protect death than we do to protect life?”

The Oklahoma Senate passed a measure last week that also defines life as beginning at conception, as did the Virginia House.

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Days after being outed as gay and accused of threatening his former boyfriend, conservative Arizona Sheriff Paul Babeu on Tuesday called for independent investigators to look into claims that the man stole from and impersonated him.

The request came in a letter to the sheriff and top prosecutor in Gila County, which neighbors Babeu’s own Pinal County in Arizona.

In the letter, the rising Republican star also asked the investigators to look into allegations that he threatened his former boyfriend with deportation if their relationship ever became public.

The request represents a dramatic turn from what Babeu said just a few days ago, when he accused his former lover of committing crimes against him but said he had no plans to take legal action.

“I am requesting the assistance of your offices to conduct a joint comprehensive investigation into the recent allegations made publicly against me and my office including possible crimes committed against me personally,” Babeu’s letter said. “I request that your investigation look into allegations of human rights violations, threatening and intimidating, misuse of public resources, theft of property, theft of identity, fraud and impersonation.”

The sheriff said during a news conference on Saturday that the his ex-boyfriend, a former campaign volunteer who has since been identified as Jose Orozco, had accessed his campaign website and social media accounts without his permission. Babeu called those actions criminal.

Read Babeau’s letter below:

Arizona Sheriff Paul Babeu Asks For Independent Investigation(function() { var scribd = document.createElement(“script”); scribd.type = “text/javascript”; scribd.async = true; scribd.src = “http://www.scribd.com/javascripts/embed_code/inject.js”; var s = document.getElementsByTagName(“script”)[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(scribd, s); })();

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CNN caught up with disgraced former Republican Sen. John Ensign at his new gig as a veterinarian in Nevada.

Ensign is still facing possible federal charges related to the work he allegedly did helping a former aide who has been charged with breaking an anti-revolving door law by lobbying the office of his former boss.

Between treating cats and dogs, the former senator told CNN his work as a veterinarian has been good experience and that he’s been able to spend more time with his family.

“This has been really really good, first of all, to come back into a profession where you’re humbled. You know, I used to own this practice, now I’m working for somebody,” Ensign told CNN. “That’s sometimes a very healthy thing to have happen in life.”

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Late last year Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) cited the fact that many prisoners convert to Islam as cause for blocking legislation that would make synthetic drugs illegal.

Paul explained in a December letter sent to Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Chuck Grassley (R-IA) recently obtained by the Bowling Green Daily News that he was blocking the bill because the “stigma of incarceration can make it practically impossible for many people to find work after they are finally released from prison.”

But there was also another reason.

“In addition, there has been much discussion in the Senate regarding combatting radical Islam. Notably, Islam is currently the fastest-growing religion among prisoners in the United States. Sending people – often young people – who may already come from broken homes and difficult family situations into a brutal prison environment is potentially a breeding ground for radicalization,” Paul wrote.

Paul’s stance got a quick response from the Kentucky Democratic Party.

“Rand Paul says that he is helping to keep drugs on Kentucky’s streets because he wants to make sure criminals aren’t converting to Islam – you simply cannot make nonsense like this up,” chairman Dan Logsdon said in a statement. “If he’s so worried about prisoners converting to Islam that he is willing to place the lives of Kentucky’s children at risk by allowing dangerous drugs on our streets, my advice to Senator Paul is that he just go ahead and make crime legal so we won’t have prisons any more. Rand Paul needs to regain whatever toehold he had on reality and realize that what he is doing is going to hurt Kentucky’s children in a very real way and he is going to have to live with that.”

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The group that hired an anti-Muslim training group to teach part of a seminar to police officers in Tennessee is defending itself against subsequent criticism by arguing that the media should really be focusing on Muslim groups like CAIR and ISNA that are trying to “infiltrate every phase of our society at every level” in order to “alter the mindset and agendas of our society for the overthrow of our Constitution and the implementation of Sharia Islamic Law.”

Last week, the Tennessee Freedom Coalition released a defense of the seminar, in response to complaints from groups like the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), Islamic Center of Murfreesboro, and various other Islamic groups.

The blog post, written by TFC board member Jonna Bianco, explains that it is in response to those complaints and members of the media “that simply can’t seem to get their facts straight or the truth reported accurately.”

Earlier this week, a number of police officers in Murfreesboro, Tennessee attended a training seminar that was taught by John Guandolo of the Virginia-based Strategic Engagement Group (SEG). Guandolo has claimed, among other things, that Muslims should not get First Amendment rights, and in the seminar described how Islamic centers could be potential military compounds.

“This training is based on facts, court documents, and incontrovertible evidence,” Bianco writes in the statement. “This program does not contain any information which could be remotely construed as hate speech nor is any information provided or presented not accurate and true.”

But, Bianco continues, some of the information provided is “not popular.”

“These Islamic organizations simply rely upon their repeated threats and pressures of the local and national media and their political influence,” Bianco continues, “brought about by their financial contributions and fund raisers for various politicians over the past several years to try and discredit anyone who speaks out against Islam, their intentions, goals and objectives by calling them Islamophobists, bigots, racists, etc.”

The real threat, Bianco says, is not what SEG presented, but is in fact the influence CAIR and ISNA have in our society:

If you go to both of these groups’ own websites, you will clearly see their goals and objectives outlined for public view of their intent to infiltrate every phase of our society at every level, including but not limited to our education system beginning with our elementary schools under the guise of “cultural education” clear through to our Universities via their Muslim Students Associations, to government and political offices, law enforcement agencies on all fronts including local, state and federal; all for the purpose and with the clear intent to alter the mindset and agendas of our society for the overthrow of our Constitution and the implementation of Sharia Islamic Law.

“Islam believes that Shariah Law supersedes the U.S. Constitution and all must submit to Islam or pay the price,” Bianco writes, “which in most cases the ultimate price is death if you choose to not submit to Islam.”

The Tennessee Freedom Coalition is no stranger to hosting Islamophobe-friendly events. It once played host to anti-Islam Dutch Parliamentarian Geert Wilders, who spoke at a free barbecue lunch. “I compare Islam not with Christianity and Judaism. I compare Islam with fascism and communism,” Wilders said at the event.

And the Executive Director of the TFC, Lou Ann Zelenik, made an unsuccessful bid for Congress in 2010, and used her opposition to the controversial plans to build a mosque in Murfreesboro as a central tenet of her campaign.

Guandolo himself is a former FBI agent who had to resign after it was revealed that he had sexual relationships with agents and a key government informant — and then created a list of his conquests. He bounced back as a speaker about the threat of Islamic terrorism, and he and SEG have run a number of these kinds of seminars in the past few years.

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Updated: February 18, 2012, 5:01 PM

While saying for the first time publicly that he is gay, rising Republican star Sheriff Paul Babeu used a dramatic news conference on Saturday in Arizona to angrily deny allegations that had been leveled against him by an ex-boyfriend in a newspaper report a day earlier.

“I’m here to say that all these allegations that were in one of these newspapers are absolutely, completely false,” the sheriff said while while surrounded by a number of his deputies and fellow elected officials. “Except for the issues that refer to me as being gay. Because that’s the truth. I am gay.”

The well-known border hawk and Congressional candidate was hit late Friday with accusations from a Mexican immigrant who said he dated the sheriff for years and was threatened with deportation if he ever told anyone about their romance.

The accusations were first reported by the Phoenix New Times newspaper and came complete with text messages reported to be from the sheriff and compromising photos of him.

At the news conference, Babeu, who is single with no children, confirmed he had a romantic relationship with the man, who has so far only been identified as “Jose.” However he denied Jose’s claims that threats had followed their breakup.

“At no time did I or anyone who represents me ever threaten deportation. Ever,” Babeu said, adding that he had no reason to believe Jose was in the country illegally. “Everything that I understand is that he’s in legal status here.”

The sheriff emphasized that he doesn’t have the authority to deport anyone and that he would never use the power of his office to intervene in a personal matter.

However, Babeu also accused his former lover of hacking into his campaign website and social media accounts and posting messages without his consent, actions that Babeu referred to as criminal. Beyond just a romantic relationship, the man had been a volunteer on the sheriff’s campaign, maintaining its website and social media accounts. That was also supposed to end when the relationship went sour, but Babeu said Jose kept accessing the accounts.

“There were legitimate crimes that were committed,” Babeu said. However, he added he had no plans to take legal actions against Jose.

Earlier Saturday, the accusations had already taken a toll on Babeu. The scandal broke just a little more than a week before the state’s Republican presidential primary, a race in which the sheriff was already playing a role as frontrunner MItt Romney’s state campaign co-chair. A short time before Babeu’s news conference, the Romney campaign announced that Babeu was resigning from his role.

As for his other activities, however, Babeu said he had no plans to suspend his campaign for Congress or resign his office as sheriff. He said he would close out his term as sheriff later this year “with a bang” and fight to represent the state’s 4th Congressional District. He is facing two tough opponents in the Republican primary, freshman Rep. Paul Gosar and state Sen. Ron Gould.

Babeu was first elected as sheriff of Pinal County, a vast area south of Phoenix, in late 2008 by unseating a longtime Democrat.

He broke onto the national stage in 2010 when he appeared alongside Arizona Sen. John McCain (R) in a now-famous television ad, calling on the federal government to complete “the danged fence” for the US-Mexico border.

Since then, he has been a frequent guest on Fox News, talking about an array of immigration-related topics, including the ongoing Fast and Furious scandal. In a relatively short time, he has become a major political force in Arizona and was considered a frontrunner in the race for Congress.

Surrounded by a number of his deputies and local elected officials on Saturday, Babeu focused for most of his time on the fact that his sexual orientation had been made public. It was a matter he managed to keep private throughout most of his life, including about 20 years in the US military.

“It’s my private life and my personal life. I’ve never worn it on my sleeve,” he said. “But now it’s not so private any longer. It’s an awful position for me to be in.”

Those who stood behind him also took turns at the microphone to speak on his behalf. Most echoed the sentiment of Babeu’s chief deputy, Steve Henry, who said the fact that Babeu was gay had no bearing on the job he does in an official capacity.

“We’ve got a lot of problems in Pinal County, in the state of Arizona and the country that we live in,” Henry said. “And we’ve been reduced to talking about this?”

Babeu mostly dodged questions about a series of compromising photographs that were made public by the New Times, admitting that they were his but saying “there still needs to be some bounds for privacy.”

He also said that his enemies had “shopped around” stories about his sexual orientation for years, but that no one in the media had taken the bait until now. He described the more serious accusations by his former lover as “the vehicle” by which the story was finally able to get out.

“This is 20-plus years that I’ve had numerous people that would threaten this to me, to expose me, go to my chain of command even in the military and have done so,” he said. “It’s almost as if there’s a relief today, to be able to not be threatened.”

Evan McMorris-Santoro contributed to this report.

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