Representative Dan Truitt of East Goshen
The Akin-Ryan Bill is one of the most anti-choice pieces of legislation out there! Two words that should never be used together in the same sentence: legitimate and rape. In defending his extreme anti-choice position – that a woman who is raped and becomes pregnant should not be permitted to have an abortion, Akin said, “First of all, from what I understand from doctors [pregnancy from rape] is really rare. If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.”
Akin and Ryan were the original co-sponsors of the controversial bill H.R. 3, “No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act,” which initially included language which changed the definition of “rape” to “forcible rape,” until public pressure forced the bill’s supporters to remove that unacceptable and narrow definition.
Ryan was against abortion in all cases including rape until Team Romney’s statement. Romney has said he would get rid of Planned Parenthood and has been moving further right on women’s issues since he was a pro-choice governor of Massachusetts.
Dan Truitt, like Todd Akin and Paul Ryan, is against a women’s right to choose in all cases, including rape and incest. He was even a co-sponsor of PA House Bill 1077 that would require anyone planning an abortion to have an ultrasound at least 24 hours before that procedure, with screens showing a real-time image in the expectant mother’s line of sight.
Patients could avert their eyes from the screen, but would still have to be told the results of the test’s findings about the fetus’ viability, sign a written report to give to the abortion provider and receive a sealed copy of the ultrasound image.
The point, proponents say, is that if some women see an image of the fetus’s heartbeat or other signs of life, they might have second thoughts about going ahead with the procedure.
Supporters of abortion rights have called the bill — with its mandate for what in many cases would be a vaginal ultrasound — one of the worst governmental intrusions into women’s health they have ever seen.