State governments sometimes try to interfere with abortion by passing regulations that delay it. Examples are Virginia's proposed ultrasound requirement and various requirements for notifying third parties.
Whenever the government requires a procedure that delays abortion, it is risking an INCREASE in the chance of an embryo feeling pain. Many abortions are performed before the embryo is capable of feeling pain, which is at around 6 weeks after fertilization. Since a woman typically suspects pregnancy between 2 and 3 weeks after fertilization, she has a window of opportunity of only about 3 weeks before the nervous system starts working and the embryo's heart starts beating.
If the state delays abortions by requiring extra processes or tests, it increases the chance that the abortion will cause pain to the embryo or "stop a beating heart." Thus the politicians become party to what they supposedly want to prevent!
If people are serious about not hurting an embryo that is capable of feeling, they should encourage early abortions, not cause them to become later ones!
Of course, this is not what politicians are really concerned about. I realize some of them want to stop abortion altogether. If that's what they want, let them make it easier for women to raise children by guaranteeing that children will not go hungry or otherwise uncared for.
