It must be for some. And one man, 63-year-old Jose Santiago Delao of Texas, was willing to provide dental services on the cheap, despite not having a license. Eventually he landed on the authorities’ radar and was arrested following a complaint from a woman about a botched molar repair:

Delao admits he skirted the law, but isn’t remorseful.

“Jesus Christ didn’t need or didn’t have a license,” Jose Delao told Yahoo News during a jailhouse interview. “People hurt and they needed it. People didn’t have enough money to visit the regular dentist.”

Delao, a former dental lab technician, claims he couldn’t turn his back.

“It broke my heart,” he said, tapping his chest, “because I have the experience.”

But authorities say Delao, a native of Costa Rica, has never been a licensed dentist in Texas. If convicted, he could get two to 10 years in prison….

A survey of published news reports shows that as many as eight such underground dental clinics have been shutdown in the U.S. since last summer.

“I would clearly classify it as a problem,” said Dr. Frank Catalanotto, chair of the Department of Community Dentistry at the University of Florida. “It is potentially a big problem.”

I disagree that the problem is unlicensed dentistry. The problem is that there is obviously a market demand for low-cost dentistry that isn’t being met, probably because the barrier to entry in the field as a state-licensed dentist is so high, a barrier which licensed dentists have a vested interest in maintaining, as it protects their market share from would-be competitors like Delao. But people are far more likely to be uninsured for dental care than for medical care, or simply can’t afford to pay the high prices of mainstream dental work. Delao understood this and tried to meet the need, to his credit. He may have committed some crime (if, as the story reports, he did not let a patient leave when she wanted to), but trying to help people isn’t one of them.

(Cross-posted from A Thousand Cuts.)

Even with substantial help from the government in the form of $7,500 buyer’s tax credits, automakers are having trouble moving their electric vehicles:

Ford Motor Co. is offering hefty discounts of more than $10,000 for leases on its slow-selling Focus electric vehicle.

Ford is offering customers up to $10,750 off for three-year leases, according to the Dearborn automaker’s website. It also has dropped the base price of the Focus EV by $2,000 for cash sales.

In addition, Ford is offering a $2,000 cash discount on the Focus EV and 1.9 percent financing if the electric vehicle is purchased through Ford Motor Credit.

The automaker sold just 685 Focus EVs in 2012, but built 1,627 — making it one of the poorest performers among electric vehicles on the market.

This follows reports that Nissan has dropped the base price of its Leaf EV by 18 percent, following sluggish sales in 2012 that didn’t come close to meeting projections. And the plug-in hybrid Chevy Volt continues to struggle, although it saw an uptick in sales late last year. But Government Motors still loses thousands of dollars on every Volt it sells.

Despite these grim numbers, some forecasters predict robust sales for EVs in 2013. But President Obama’s promise to have one million electric cars on the road by 2015 still seems to be a long shot. The choices made by consumers are speaking much louder than Obama’s words ever could.

(Cross-posted from A Thousand Cuts.)

Print and online media were predictably flooded with stories on guns and gun control in the week following the horrific massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. Few stories, however, attracted attention like this one published by The Journal News, a White Plains, New York-based paper, which included an interactive map pinpointing the names and locations of registered handgun permit holders throughout two suburban New York counties. The Journal News did nothing wrong in obtaining the information; handgun permits in New York are public records, and a Freedom of Information Act request was all the paper needed to get them.

Although legal, their action is problematic for other reasons, not the least of which is that the story accompanying the map starts off with the shooting of a local woman by her mentally disturbed 77-year-old neighbor, who “had amassed a cache of weapons — including two unregistered handguns and a large amount of ammunition — without any neighbors knowing.” Which seems to beg the question of how a map of registered permit holders might have alerted this person’s neighbors to his firearms ownership status. Also, there is no way of knowing who owns rifles and shotguns, even though they’re just as lethal as handguns, because New York does not require ownership permits for them. So what legitimate public interest is served by a newspaper outing legal handgun owners, who presumably (because felons cannot own firearms) have not committed any crimes?

Whatever their motivation, The Journal News was perhaps not prepared for the firestorm of criticism it ignited, which has prompted them to hire armed security for their editorial offices:

The armed guards — hired from local private security companies — have been stationed in The Journal News’s headquarters and in a satellite office in West Nyack, N.Y., since last week, said Janet Hasson, the president and publisher of The Journal News Media Group.

“The safety of my staff is my top priority,” Ms. Hasson said in a telephone interview.

Quite understandable, but for a newspaper that apparently believes the presence of guns in their readers’ neighborhoods constitutes a safety risk they should know about, doesn’t it strike anyone as ironic that it would then hire people with guns to protect its staff? The only point they seem to be proving is that guns help people feel safer. So wouldn’t a neighborhood full of legally-owned firearms be among the safest places to live? We already know the answer to that¹.

¹ With the caveat, of course, that mandatory gun ownership is no more libertarian than gun restrictions.

Most of us probably will admit that we keep resolutions only slightly better than politicians keep campaign promises. Even President Obama couldn’t keep a promise not to raise taxes on all but the wealthiest Americans, as the current “fiscal cliff” deal does not extend the 2% payroll tax cut, which impacts every person earning a paycheck.

So don’t look to Washington to keep any resolutions in the new year. Instead, we’ve come up with a list of suggestions for our readers to continue stoking the flames of liberty, or at least keep them flickering a little while longer. (Editorial resolution for TLS: drop the tired metaphors for liberty already.)

1. Play with guns (and invite a non-gun owner to come with you)

Guns, and more to the point gun control, promise to figure prominently in the media and in Congress this year, as the country still grapples with its most horrific school shooting yet. But the public debate is largely fueled by hysteria, misinformation, and outright lies. For the vast majority of gun owners, they are simply tools for self-defense, hunting, and having fun. And what better way to demonstrate the latter than an outing to a shooting range? For a lot of people, that’s the only legal place to try their hand at firing some types of guns. Actually handling an AR-15, the so-called assault rifle that is the focus of both media pundits and gun policy wonks, may help demystify them and return some sanity to the average non-gun owner’s perspective on these useful and important tools.

2. Start blogging

There’s almost no excuse anymore for not sharing your thoughts with the world; there are near-endless varieties of blogging platforms and hosting services to choose from, and you can make it as casual or as professional as you like. But the important thing to remember is that communicating ideas of liberty is almost effortless, and they can spread faster than ever – far faster than any governmental attempt to rein them in. The “money bombs” which drove Ron Paul’s presidential campaigns would not have been possible without the use of social media, including blogs, and it’s easier than ever now to keep it going.

3. Always keep a smartphone or video recording tool handy

The violation of civil rights by law enforcement has in all likelihood been a problem since the beginnings of the modern police force, but now they face more intense scrutiny than ever, because cameras are almost literally everywhere – and many of them aren’t controlled by the state. Citizens have become the watchmen’s watchers, at least where it’s legal (and some courts are now ruling against state restrictions on recording police). It may well be that a smartphone with real-time video uploading abilities will become a more effective tool for justice than any gun or legal action.

4. Explore alternative forms of education – for yourself and your kids

With public schools still swirling the drain and recent college graduates facing few job prospects and a mountain of student loan debt, may we suggest opting out of the traditional state-backed education model entirely? Technology is enabling a full-blown education renaissance, with online learning on a vast array of subjects freely available, and homeschooling and unschooling resources more abundant than ever before. They won’t replace formal college degrees in every field of study, but they at least offer an alternative for those who wish to pursue knowledge without the excessive cost and politics of government schools.

5. Speaking of education…give the gift of Austrian economics and libertarian literature

Another benefit of the online revolution is the speed and ease of acquiring educational material on libertarianism and economics, and more importantly, sharing it with others. And it’s available for many reading and educational levels. A great example is Robert Murphy’s Lessons for the Young Economist, a high school-level economics textbook with a fresh Austrian School perspective. Other recommended books include Jacob Huebert’s Libertarianism Today, Brian Doherty’s Ron Paul’s rEVOLution: The Man and the Movement He Inspired, and Paul’s own The Revolution: A Manifesto.

6. Above all, strive to improve yourself

Demonstrating success in your daily endeavors is a great way to attract people to the message of liberty. One of the most significant differences between libertarians and statists are the former’s desire to change themselves – to lead the life they wish to lead, and not interfere with the same desires of others. By striving for excellence, others will be more interested in hearing your ideas. By such achievements we can indelibly change the world.

Welcome to our live blog for the 2012 election.  We’ll keep this updated through the evening with results and reactions.

The polls have already closed in some states and are about to close in others, but we’ll make the bold move of calling the election…for the Federal Reserve.  Thanks for joining us!  (Just kidding.)

As I’m in Colorado, I have a special interest in some local races, particularly the vote on Amendment 64, which would legalize the cultivation, sale, and use of marijuana for adults 21 and older.  Similar measures exist on the ballots in Washington state and Oregon.  Any one of them passing would be a significant repudiation by voters of the horrific, wasteful, tyrannical war on drugs.

Currently CNN is calling Indiana, West Virginia, and Kentucky for Mitt Romney, while President Barack Obama appears to have Vermont locked up.  Ohio, Virginia, and North Carolina are too close to call.  Aren’t you excited?  I’m excited, and I haven’t even started drinking yet!  Stay tuned.  (All times MST.)

10:36 pm: At this point it’s pretty much all over but the Republican shouting.  Even if the result in Ohio is reversed, Obama still has enough electoral votes to affirm re-election.  So now we can puzzle at the cognitive dissonance of Colorado voters who approved legalized marijuana but also voted for a president with an abysmal record of harassing medical marijuana providers (including those in Colorado).

Then there’s the drone-bombing, the indefinite detention powers, the secret kill list, Obamacare, the truly terrifying deficit spending…the next four years might look a lot like the last four years.  Which is to say, a lot like the previous eight.

Welcome to George W. Bush’s 4th term.  Good night, and good luck!

10:25 pm: Gary Johnson is now the most successful Libertarian Party candidate ever, with over 920,000 votes.

10:18 pm: I have to give Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper credit: he campaigned against Amendment 64, but is at least keeping his sense of humor about its passage: “The voters have spoken and we have to respect their will. This will be a complicated process, but we intend to follow through. That said, federal law still says marijuana is an illegal drug so don’t break out the Cheetos or gold fish too quickly.”

10:03 pm: Same-sex marriage proposal has won by a wide margin in Maryland, and a similar measure is ahead in Washington state.

9:55 pm: Apparently the talking heads on Fox News have lost their collective shit over calling Ohio for Obama.  To be honest, it’s still close enough to think a recount might happen AND Politico is now reporting that Romney is actually leading the popular vote in Ohio.

9:48 pm: I guess I should be grateful that Obama voters in Colorado also seem to think legal marijuana is a good thing.

9:40 pm: Not all good news on the pot front: Oregon’s underfunded initiative is losing.  Montana’s initiative to restrict sales of medical marijuana is passing by a wide margin, and Arkansas’ MMJ proposal is losing.

9:38 pm: ‏@LucyStag: It’s too regulated, the DEA is no doubt readying the jackboots, but holy shit Colorado seems to have just legalized marijuana.

9:31 pm: What kind of role did Gary Johnson play in these races? In Ohio, he’s received nearly 39,000 votes, more than the current margin between Obama and Romney.  Similarly, 38,000 votes separate Obama and Romney in Florida, less than the votes Johnson has received.  (He’s been less of a factor in Wisconsin and Iowa.)

9:28 pm: Time for the sputtering in near-impotent rage to begin: Romney campaign is disputing the Ohio call.

9:24 pm: Marijuana update: Colorado’s Amendment 64 leading 53%-47%, with 39% reporting.

9:22 pm: This is playing out exactly as I predicted: Romney is likely to win the popular vote but lose the election.

9:20 pm: Game over, it appears.  Obama wins Ohio and is re-elected to a second term.  Republicans weep.

9:16 pm: Depending on which site you’re following, Obama is either 14 or 36 electoral votes away from re-election.  CNN has called Wisconsin and Iowa for Obama.  Essentially it all hinges on Ohio or Florida at this point: if Obama gets either state it’s over.

9:12 pm: More proof God doesn’t exist: Joe Arpaio re-elected by a landslide in Maricopa County, Arizona.

9:11 pm: @KerryHowley: It’s a bad time to be a dog owned by two election bloggers

9:07 pm: North Carolina is given to Romney.  With all of the other nail-biters in progress, one other swing state has been ignored: Iowa, which is currently 55%-44% in favor of Obama.

9:03 pm: Polls close in Washington and California, and they’re promptly called for Obama.  Only really interesting races there are on ballot issues: pot legalization and gay marriage in WA; tax hikes, death penalty abolition, and “three strikes” sentencing reform in CA.

9:00 pm: #NotTheOnion: Boston’s Logan Airport is “overwhelmed” by private jets arriving for Mitt Romney’s party.

8:54 pm: Obama is ahead by 8,000 votes in Wisconsin.  Who the hell called this state already?  This is like Ricky Bobby and Jean Girard sprinting for the finish line.

8:48 pm: Louisiana voters have overwhelmingly approved an amendment to strengthen the state’s gun rights laws.  Perhaps they have long memories of residents being forcibly disarmed in the aftermath of Katrina.

8:45 pm: Will this election set the record for most automatic recounts triggered?  In North Carolina, Romney is leading by 80,000 votes; in Florida, Obama leads by 16,000 votes; in Ohio it’s Obama by 90,000 votes.

8:38 pm: Gary Johnson update: he’s polling at 2.4% in Wyoming, 1.1% in Colorado and Arizona, 2.2% in Montana.  He may well end up over 1% by the end of the vote counts, which would be the best showing ever for the Libertarian Party.

8:33 pm: Wisconsin’s Tammy Baldwin wins the Senate race?  Still seems too close to call, but if so, she becomes the first openly gay Senator.  And a crucial blow to Republicans hoping to gain ground in the Senate.

8:28 pm: Other pot proposals: medical marijuana winning by a big margin in Massachusetts, but losing in Arkansas.  Apparently, the rest of the state doesn’t like to inhale, either.

8:24 pm: I’m currently relying on Web sites and Twitter for election coverage.  My wife is showing her appreciation for this auspicious event by watching replays of The Voice.

8:21 pm: Cale Crout ‏@BlGBlRD: Romney has now lost 4 of his 6 home states. Still hope in Switzerland and Cayman Islands.

8:18 pm: Twenty minutes after the polls close in Utah, Romney carries the Mormon national homeland #ResultsWhichSurpriseAbsolutelyNoOne

8:13 pm: Man, Twitter is nigh unbearable already following Warren’s Senate race victory.  I can’t imagine what it will be like should Obama pull this thing off.

8:09 pm: Romney comfortably ahead in Missouri, but in the Senate race, Todd Akin is no longer seen as a legitimate contender.  Ahem.

8:04 pm: Obama projected to win New Hampshire.  Interestingly, the Constitution Party candidate, Virgil Goode, is outpolling Gary Johnson there.  Did they split the Free Staters vote?

7:56 pm: Enthusiastic redistributionist Elizabeth Warren wins her Senate race in Massachusetts.

7:51 pm: NBC has called New Mexico for Obama.  Johnson received 3% in his home state.

7:42 pm: Colorado update: Obama ahead 50.7% to 47.6%.  Amendment 64 now leading 53.5% to 46.5%.  Thank you, stoners!

7:35 pm: Fellow TLSer Steve Ciciotti, on the close race in Florida: “You know *whoever* loses in such a situation, will believe it was because of a Johnson being shoved up their ass.”

7:30 pm: Pennsylvania appears to be a win for Obama.  He is still trailing overall in electoral votes, but all of the swing states are still undecided.

7:25 pm: Bill O’Reilly stops just short of claiming that the country has gone to hell because white people are no longer in charge.

7:23 pm: Michigan is a win for Obama.  He’s also now leading in Colorado.

7:17 pm: Very early returns in Colorado has Romney ahead, with Johnson at 1.1%.  Amendment 64 trailing.

7:12 pm: Another state where Johnson is having an impact is North Carolina.  Romney with a slight lead, 50.2% to 49%, with Johnson polling at 0.8%.

7:10 pm: Great swaths of red throughout the South and Midwest, but that is (mostly) expected.  The battleground states still very tight.

7:02 pm: Obama barely leading in Florida: 49.7% to 49.5%.  Gary Johnson holding steady at .5%.

7:00 pm: Polls have closed here in Colorado.  Now comes the wait for the results on Amendment 64.

6:58 pm:  @michaelpetrou I think Mitt Romney would win my “Who would you rather have a beer with?” test because I’d get to drink his.

6:55 pm: Ah, Internet.  Some Web sites (like CNN’s) seem to be struggling to display election results due to heavy traffic.

6:51 pm: Another Ron Paul Republican, Thomas Massie, has won a House seat in Kentucky (h/t Jesse Walker).

6:48 pm: Did Oklahomans even make it to the bars after the polls closed before their state was called for Romney?

6:39 pm: One example of Gary Johnson possibly affecting the outcome: he’s got 0.5% of the vote in Florida.  Obama ahead 51%-48%.

6:31 pm: None of the swing states can be called yet: Florida, Ohio, and Virginia all still very tight.  In Connecticut, the Democrats appear to have regained Joe Lieberman’s Senate seat.

6:29 pm: Romney’s home state, Massachusetts, has been called for Obama.

6:25 pm: The Florida count is officially interesting.  Near dead heat between Romney and Obama with half the vote counted.  Any sign of pregnant chads?

6:13 pm: Unsurprisingly, none of the major news outlets seems interested in following all of the Presidential vote counts.  Only the “legitimate” heirs to the throne need apply!  Looking for other sources that provide third party counts.  Politico appears to be a good one.

6:05 pm: Another independent appears to have won a Senate seat (Angus King in Maine).  Electoral vote count: Obama 64, Romney 40 (CNN).  But NBC has Romney ahead 82-64.

6:00 pm: NBC has renamed 30 Rockefeller Center “Democracy Plaza” for the election.  Does that mean we can vote on Brian Williams’ performance?

5:54 pm: Early returns in Virginia have Romney well ahead, 59% to 40%.

5:48 pm: I voted for Gary Johnson, and although I am very skeptical that the Libertarian Party candidate will make much of an impact tonight (no LP candidate has polled above 1% nationally since Ed Clark in 1980), I am hoping he makes enough of a difference in swing states to make both major party supporters nervous.  So far he’s pulling 2% in Indiana, although that state has already been called for Romney.

5:40 pm: Follow #electioncocktails on Twitter if you need beverage ideas to get you through the night.  Suggestion courtesy of Radley Balko: “The Ann Coulter: white wine, nicotine, hydrochloric acid.”

5:35 pm: Polls are closed in South Carolina, and it’s already been called for Romney. 

I have never understood the popular infatuation with Ernesto “Che” Guevara, the Argentine-born Marxist revolutionary who instigated socialist revolts in three countries, or why people would want to wear clothing emblazoned with his face.  The man was a mass murderer, after all, and the architect (along with Fidel Castro) of the communist police state that rules Cuba to this day.  Unless one believes murder, wealth seizure and destruction, and the abrogation of civil liberties are justified means to political ends, why would anyone want to celebrate a person who engaged in all of these atrocities?

Thor Halvorssen, founder of the Human Rights Foundation, doesn’t understand it either, and in an open letter to Urban Outfitters published on Huffington Post this week, he questions the company’s reasons for offering Che-themed merchandise:

Although Guevara’s image has appeared on countless items for consumption over the last few decades as a symbol of change for the better, Guevara’s actual record is that of a brutal tyrant who suppressed individual freedom in Cuba and murdered those who challenged his worldview.

Guevara undoubtedly played a key role in the overthrow of the dictatorial Batista regime in January of 1959. However, despite promises of a new democratic government, within a few months he and Fidel Castro had designed and installed a full-blown police state that deprived the overwhelming majority of Cuban citizens of democracy and human rights.

From 1959 to 1960, the new government carried out summary executions of at least 1,118 people by firing squad. Guevara himself presided over the notorious La Cabaña prison, where hundreds of the executions took place. For comparison’s sake, the Batista regime was responsible for 747 noncombatant deaths between 1952 and 1959. The Cuban revolution under the direction of Guevara also saw the rise of forced labor camps which gave way a few years later to full-scale concentration camps. These were filled with dissidents, homosexuals, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Afro-Cuban priests, and anyone else who had committed “crimes” against the new moral revolution.

Note: it appears that Urban Outfitters no longer carries the poster that prompted Halvorssen’s letter.

It’s not just Urban Outfitters, of course; many companies over the decades have offered Che’s mug on everything from key chains to jackets to backpacks, snapped up primarily by college kids who dig the rebellious motif, or by hipsters who appreciate the irony of a leftist revolutionary icon being used to enrich filthy capitalist pigs.  Either way, Halvorssen’s letter is a welcome reality check.

Just so long as they don’t start selling Obama T-shirts.

Any blow struck for economic liberty is worth celebrating, even if the person wielding the hammer is not, shall we say, a fan of Rothbardian libertarianism.  But there is encouraging news from Tim Sandefur of the Pacific Legal Foundation, which pressured the Missouri legislature to repeal its licensing laws regarding moving companies:

Under the old law, a person applying for permission to operate a moving company was required to submit to a licensing scheme under which existing moving companies were given the privilege of basically vetoing the application. We challenged that law on behalf of St. Louis entrepreneur Michael Munie, and argued the case in federal district court in April. But in the meantime, state lawmakers passed legislation repealing the law, and this afternoon, Governor Nixon signed that bill, thus opening the road for economic opportunity in the Show Me State.

Baby steps, to be sure — Missouri and most other states have licensing laws for dozens of occupations, some imposing absurd educational requirements (in Texas, for example, “shampoo specialists” at hair salons must have 150 hours of training before they can even test for their license) and exorbitant costs for both training and the licensing process itself.  None of these laws actually do anything to ensure quality service for consumers; they exist solely to protect incumbents from competition.  These laws can’t disappear quickly enough, and kudos to the PLF and other organizations, such as the Institute for Justice, for continuing to challenge them.

President Obama pays a lower tax rate than his secretary – the very sort of disparity which, according to his own staff, illustrates why the so-called “Buffett Rule” needs to be implemented so that the wealthy pay more.

But Obama won’t consider the idea of simply donating more to the Treasury to address the gap – oh no! “That’s not the way we operate our tax system, okay?” his campaign strategist says. “We don’t run bake sales. It’s not about volunteerism. We all kick in according to the system.”

He’s right. It’s not about “volunteerism.” It’s about violence. Pay your “fair share,” or the government will take it from you by force. They won’t even entertain the novel idea that if people wanted to give the government more money, they could – the Treasury Department will gladly accept their check! But that’s somehow less legitimate than pointing a gun at them and taking whatever the law decrees is “fair.”

And yes, I am reminded of the scene from Monty Python and the Holy Grail where the peasant observes “now we see the violence inherent in the system!” If only we had a government which derived its authority from a mandate from the masses…

Bonus reading: Matt Welch on the five new ways the IRS is screwing Americans.  Happy Tax Day!

If you receive an application for a position requiring a lot of driving or operating heavy machinery, and the applicant has a known history of alcohol or substance abuse, you’d probably be justified in turning the applicant down for the job, right?

You probably already know the answer to this, but: wrong.

A substitute bus driver for the Jefferson County, Colo., school district was cited for careless driving resulting in bodily harm after he struck three teenagers as they crossed the street on Tuesday.  The driver, David Shaw, was convicted of DUI in 1992 and according to friends had been in and out of alcohol abuse treatment as recently as 2009.

But even had the school district known this, they could not use it as grounds to terminate him, or even to make a hiring decision:

When asked whether Shaw would have been hired if the district had known he’d been in and out of addiction rehab treatment, a representative cited the American’s with Disabilities Act, which reads “‘It is illegal under state and federal disability laws to deny employment solely on the basis of a history of treatment for alcohol or substance abuse.”

Ignoring the DUI for the moment (which should have been caught in a background check), only the government could come up with employment policies which result in alcoholics driving schoolchildren around in buses.

It’s not that they shouldn’t be hired at all.  But the many-headed beast that is the Americans with Disabilities Act has made it virtually impossible to apply common sense when making hiring decisions.  And since the ADA has proved to be a potent legal weapon against businesses who have turned down or fired disabled workers, it has actually had the opposite effect it intended: employment of disabled workers have decreased steadily since passage of the ADA in 1989.  But as with most other anti-discrimination laws, merely suggesting that the ADA needs to be overhauled (or heavens forbid, repealed) makes one an enemy of the very group of people the law was intended (but failed) to protect.

More from another hater of disabled people, Cato’s Walter Olson, on the occasion of the ADA’s 20th anniversary.

If a law currently up for vote in the Virginia House passes this week and is signed by Governor Bob McDonnell, it will require many women seeking an abortion to be raped.

No, you didn’t misread that.

The bill, which is similar to laws passed in seven other states, requires women to undergo an ultrasound procedure before an abortion is performed.  The ultrasound is not medically necessary; it has not even been rationalized as such by the bill’s defenders.  It is simply another tactic adopted by anti-abortion crusaders to humiliate women, in the hopes that they may change their mind about going through with the procedure.

But since most abortions are performed in the first trimester, and abdominal ultrasounds are not able to produce a clear image of the fetus in most cases, Virgina’s law mandates the use of transvaginal ultrasound – that is, a probe must be inserted in the women’s vagina to view the fetus.  Women cannot refuse this if they want to get an abortion, and the law does not allow for any exceptions such as rape or to protect the woman’s health.

I can’t even imagine what a rape victim who has become pregnant might think of this, after having already been violated once, and then being told by arrogant politicians that she must be violated again in order to undergo a commonly available medical procedure.  It also forces her doctor to perform a procedure that is not medically necessary, and violates their oath not to cause harm to their patient.  As one Virginia House Delegate pointed out, the bill may actually require doctors to sexually assault their patients, as it is a crime to vaginally penetrate women with any object without their consent.  (To add insult to injury, the woman must also pay for this state-mandated procedure.  Where’s Obamacare when you need it?)

It’s not even cognizant of the doctor-patient relationship that is generally so well-respected – except when women’s medical choices are involved.  Then it’s absolutely imperative that the government asserts jurisdiction over a women’s vagina, to ensure she’s actually making the best medical decisions for herself.  It’s not just humiliating; it is paternalistic in its very worst sense.

Note that I haven’t even addressed the issue of abortion itself.  That is because regardless of where one stands on abortion – if one considers it murder, or the right of a woman to make decisions regarding her own property (i.e., her body) – this intrusion by the state into private medical affairs, which would not be tolerated under virtually any other circumstances, is simply not justifiable.  And perhaps anti-abortion crusaders are aware of that, and are adopting these tactics to set up a constitutional challenge that leads to a Supreme Court review of Roe v. Wade, hopefully this time to overturn it for good.

Regardless of the anti-abortion camp’s motives, their degrading and humiliating tactics are despicable.