Throughout the country, lawmakers are on a mission to put a dent in women’s rights. They want to stop the Birth Control Epidemic, close abortion clinics, and penetratingly shame women into reconsidering potential abortions. As we reported on PhillyNow back in October 2011, Pennsylvania is following suit with State Rep. Kathy Rapp’s bill that’d put a list of requirements on both doctors and women seeking to end their pregnancies. And it’s got us thinking: Maybe “Pennsylvanistan” is a more appropriate nickname than “Pennsyltucky.”

Since October, states like Virginia, Louisiana and Idaho joined in with their own respective ultrasound bills, attempting to probe and shame women out of their Supreme Court-mandated right. But then, something weird happened. Even though the Republicans in these states had crucial control over their legislatures, public pressure got to them. They began bowing out from their ultrasound legislation. Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell halfheartedly decided such a bill was too extreme. Parts of the Louisiana bill have been shot down by the courts. And then Alabama State Sen. Clay Scofield, the Republican who wrote that state’s ultrasound legislation, said he’s revisiting the bill in order to water it down.

“I am committed to amending this (bill) to specify that it is the woman’s choice which method of ultrasound that she would be more comfortable with,” Scofield said. His bill will still likely require ultrasounds, but he wants women to be able to choose, based on comfort. That may still sound weird, but Pennsylvania Republicans make him look like a kerchief-sporting cub scout in comparison.

As reported by RawStory this week, Pennsylvania’s ultrasound legislation is now among the most radical in the country. Unlike many other states’ bills, Rapp’s would require women (and doctors) to receive personalized copies of their ultrasounds in envelopes before the procedure. Women who get an ultrasound more than 14 days before the procedure are required to be asked to view a state-approved video on fetal gestation. The PA bill also mandates how long before the abortion an ultrasound should be performed. Such a mandate has already been struck down in Louisiana.

Pro-life source Life News recently wrote that the legislation should be required because women in abortion clinics, are unable to think for themselves. “When a pregnant woman enters an abortion facility, she does so in a state of vulnerability,” they recently wrote. “She is scared and often feels trapped by her circumstances. Abortion has been marketed to her by clinic workers or even forced upon her by a boyfriend or by her family and she has come to believe it is the only way out.” The state owes it to women, Life News continued, to make sure they have “all the facts” about pregnancy.