# I pit Gov. Scott Walker for mandating the unnecessary inserting of objects into women

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-gov-scott-walker-for-mandating-the-unnecessary-inserting-of-objects-into-women/662746>\
**Category:** The BBQ Pit\
**Created:** [July 5, 2013, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-gov-scott-walker-for-mandating-the-unnecessary-inserting-of-objects-into-women/662746 "2013-07-05T20:19:08Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 1596

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**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\
**Post date:** [January 11, 2014, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-gov-scott-walker-for-mandating-the-unnecessary-inserting-of-objects-into-women/662746/1596 "2014-01-11T17:58:39Z")

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> [@iiandyiiii](#):
>
> Resurrecting this thread because of a [new study](http://thinkprogress.org/health/2014/01/10/3145181/study-ultrasound-abortion/):
> 
> The findings are essentially this – looking at an ultrasound does not change women’s decision to have an abortion. Women really are capable of making this decision without ‘help’ from the government.
> 
> I’ll also bring up that in [this post](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=16453109&postcount=181), **Bricker** says that he would oppose mandatory ultrasound requirements if it could be proved that it had no affect on their decisions to have an abortion.
> 
> So, **Bricker** , do you stand by your statement, and now oppose such requirements?

The study says that a small number of women did change their minds:

> [@](#):
>
> Patients opted to view the ultrasound image 42.5% of the time. Nearly all pregnancies (98.8%) were terminated: 98.4% of pregnancies among women who viewed their ultrasound images and 99.0% of pregnancies among the patients who did not.

So there is a tiny difference – maybe not even significant statistically.

What I said at the time was that I expected a significant number…I might have tossed out 25%. If it had been, say, ten percent, I might have made a case that the benefit still outweighed the imposition on liberty.

But this, I concede, was not. I have only read the abstract, so I may reverse my opinion again if the study methodology is flawed in some way, but based on this evidence, I agree: the law is not justified.

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