[Kickass Conservative]

Letting? How about making it mandatory?

[Sarcasm Factory]

Outright forcing it would clearly infringe on individual freedom of speech and opinion. This option as ruled constitutionally acceptable by the Supreme Court is a reasonable approach that doubtless will have the happy result of significantly reducing casual abortions in Kentucky. I fully expect the idea to spread rapidly among other state legislatures. As others have said, seeing the fetus and its heartbeat personalizes and — dare I say it — humanizes it in the heart of the would-be mother. It's longer an anonymous lump of unwanted meat but a human being waiting to be born.

As I've said before, I'm a long way from an absolutist anti-abortion fanatic myself, but I approve of measures like this. In the near future, it may be possible to go further by sampling the DNA of the fetus and quickly computing utterly lifelike videos of how the yet-to-be-born child will look at the age of six months, one year, five years, and so forth. In a dystopian story I once read — or near-utopian, depending on your view — women who had had abortions were forced to watch just that sort of video once a month for twenty or thirty years after the abortion. This hypothetical society was part of a "grand compromise" between anti-abortion forces and pro-choice agitators. It's an interesting notion even if it technically tramples all over the First Amendment.

Letting? How about making it mandatory?