Va. governor backs off ultrasound bill

Virginia Gov. Robert McDonnell backed off his unqualified support for a bill requiring women to have an ultrasound before an abortion, his office said. At the same time, state lawmakers worked behind the scenes to soften the measure, The (Norfolk) Virginian-Pilot and The Washington Post reported. McDonnell, who campaigned as an opponent of elective abortion, initially said he would sign the measure if it made it to his desk. He now will no longer make that commitment, his office said. "Our position is: If the General Assembly passes this bill the governor will review it, in its final form, at that time," spokesman Tucker Martin said in a statement cited by the Post. Martin declined to explain the reason for McDonnell's change. The governor can sign, veto or amend the legislation. The state House and Senate approved their versions of the bill. But the House Tuesday postponed a final vote on the legislation for the second day in a row. The Virginian-Pilot said the measure may be revised following an uproar due to a provision requiring that a probe be inserted into women's vaginas. The Post said lawmakers and the governor's staff met Tuesday night to strike a compromise after learning some ultrasounds could be more invasive than first thought. The Virginia legislation has become part of the broader national debate over reproductive rights. U.S. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said she learned House Republican leaders had refused to allow a hearing about contraception that she planned for Thursday to be televised. The hearing was to include a female law student prohibited from testifying about contraception at an all-male House committee hearing last week. Pelosi aides said the House recording studio denied a request to broadcast the hearing, "apparently" on orders from the Republican-controlled Committee on House Administration, Politico reported. Pelosi spokesman Drew Hammill said the committee lifted restrictions on use of the studio in July 2008. "If Chairman [Dan] Lungren [R-Calif.] has reversed this policy, he has done so in secret and not consulted with CHA Democrats," he told Politico in an e-mail. "This leaves us only to think that the House Republican leadership is acting out yet again to silence women on the topic of women's health," he said. Republican committee spokeswoman Salley Wood said the policy wasn't changed in 2008 and the recording studio still operated under 2005 policies. The hearing, with testimony by Georgetown University law student Sandra Fluke, would be the first time the studio has not covered a hearing, or told Democrats it couldn't because of other commitments, Pelosi's office said.