transvaginal ultrasound is not required, but more practices are starting to make them standard for any pregnancy at 6-8 weeks. There was one for both of my children, ages 6 and 2. Is it medically necessary? No. Does it reduce risk? Absolutely. That's why I have a problem with your last sentence. "Also, mind you, calling a procedure that women didn't have for thousands of years, yet still produced children, as "medically necessary," seems a little shaky." Two problems. First, there are lots of medical procedures that people didn't have for thousands of years that are now common place and save lives. It's not that they weren't medically necessary for thousands of years, just that the knowledge wasn't there. Second of all, women for thousands of years didn't have these procedures and guess what, the mortality rate was far higher than it was today. How many women died as a result of pregnancy who would have otherwise survived if a medically necessary procedure had been invented. On a separate note, in relation to what happened in Virginia last month, the whole legislative debate was more show that statemenship. Virginia Planned Parenthood already conducts transvaginal ultrasounds before any abortion (and in some cases two). If they bill had become law, nothing would have changed. Now that the bill isn't law, nothing has changed. That doesn't take away from the larger debate, which is namely that any patient should have the right to refuse any procedure that they don't want and that