With her presidential campaign foundering, it appears that Michele Bachmann is getting back to her super crazy roots.
She's just introduced the "Heartbeat Informed Consent Act" to congress, a truly epic work of legislative lunacy.
The bill would require pregnant women to get an ultrasound and view the images before they're allowed to receive an abortion. The provider would also be required to describe any cardiac activity that they are able to observe in the ultrasound.
For women who are far enough along in the pregnancy, the act would go even further -- they'd be subjected to a "hand-held Doppler fetal monitor" in order to make the fetus's heartbeat audible. Only after this bizarre ritual would the provider be allowed to accept a woman's consent and perform the abortion.
"A pregnant woman who enters an abortion clinic is faced with a decision that will forever change two lives," Bachmann wrote in a statement. "That's why she must have the very best information with which to make that decision."
The bill does allow for the woman to refuse to receive this best manipulation, by closing or averting her eyes, or ostensibly jamming her fingers in her ears.
In this nightmarescape, abortion providers would be fined up to $100,000 if they gave abortions with performing the ultrasound.
