Read "The Handmaid's Tale" Really.

The political and religious assault on American women is escalating. Following near-draconian measures against women's reproductive rights in other states such as Texas, Virginia has added a stupefying twist of degrading cruelty. A woman seeking an abortion will be forced to have an intravaginal ultrasound prior to terminating the pregnancy. I doubt these women will be "Allowed" to wear an iPod and a sleep mask through the procedure.

There is absolutely no medical necessity or reasoning for this. It's largely intended to humiliate the patient. You know--by having an object forced into her vagina against her will, like in a rape. Rape isn't about sex; it's about power, humiliation, and subjugation of the victim. Does the Republican Party (of men) who came up with this measure think that nobody sees through their punitive intentions?

I had an intravginal ultrasound a few years ago. It was very invasive, painful, and unpleasant--and I had a doctor and a tech who tried very hard to be gentle and comforting. Obviously, this wasn't in the cruel, Medieval state of Virginia.

I've read online comments (mostly from men) saying this ultrasound procedure is just no big deal. Obviously, they need to have a microphone-sized probed shoved up their asses a few times to really get an idea of what the procedure entails. It's intravaginal. That means the rather large probe (the one used on me was really big, anyway) is pushed up into the vagina as far as it can go. It hurts. A lot.

With the recent attempts at crippling women's access to birth control, Plan B contraception, and abortions, it appears that the evangelical Christian right is doing everything it possibly can to crush America's women under its heel until women learn some lesson--what? That we should be meek and quiet, never earn a salary comparable to a man's, or that we can't possibly be anything more than a hole that accepts penis and sperm and later ejects offspring?

These people are no different than any other radical extremist religious group that works tirelessly to make sure women live only to serve the whims and sexual desires of men. That's it.

We are heading down a road where the United States of America will be run by the Christian Taliban. Get your burqas ready, ladies. Our days as free persons are numbered. Before books are banned, though, do take a weekend to read Margaret Atwood's novel, "The Handmaid's Tale." It quite clearly describes what our future holds.