Today’s advanced ultrasounds are enabling women to come face to face with the tissue, organs, anatomy, and even the individual facial features of the fetus growing inside of them.
in Times Square and projected on a large screen for the “Alive in New York” gathering. The spectacle, co-sponsored by the March for Life and Focus on the family, attracted a crowd of more than 400.
‘The conversation has changed because of the advancement of medical imagery more than anything else.’, told the Post. “When a woman has an unexpected pregnancy, there can be a lot of fear… [but] an ultrasound cuts through the noise, the fear, the ‘what ifs’ and helps a woman see the life inside her.”
Three- and four-dimensional ultrasounds entered commercial use in the 1990s; three decades later, their increased popularity coincides with the scaling-back of abortion rights across the nation., 13 states currently have laws in place requiring medical professionals provide abortion patients with verbal counseling or written materials that include information on how to access ultrasound services. Additionally, 27 states go as far as to regulate how abortion providers provide ultrasounds.
Take Wisconsin, which in 2013 enacted a law requiring abortion providers display and describe ultrasound images. Anof 5,342 medical charts found that there was an increase in Wisconsin women originally seeking abortion who ultimately went through with their pregnancies, albeit a very small one. The study’s authors note a “statistically significant but small increase in continuing pregnancy rates”—from 8.7%to 11.