Things have been quiet on the ultrasound front yesterday and today after Wednesday's tumult, with no House hearing scheduled on the controversial Senate-passed bill to require Idaho women who want an abortion to first undergo an ultrasound, but talk in the halls of the Statehouse has continued. Anti-abortion activists who pushed for the bill, SB 1387, are still promoting it, but skittish House Republicans haven't been enthusiastic.

The House State Affairs Committee, which on Wednesday abruptly canceled its hearing on SB 1387 that had been scheduled for Thursday morning, didn't meet today, and has posted an agenda for a Monday morning meeting that doesn't include the bill. Asked yesterday about the developments, Senate Assistant Majority Leader Chuck Winder, R-Meridian, the bill's lead sponsor, said, “I guess the thing I would say is that this is the process that works. If the House has some concerns with it, that's certainly their right to consider those.”

Today, Senate Majority Leader Bart Davis, R-Idaho Falls, who supported the bill both in committee and on the floor of the Senate, said, “It certainly became a bill that had political dynamics that I didn't foresee, including an understanding of how people would look at the legislation.” Davis said he “honestly did not believe at the time we printed the bill or I committed to the bill” that it would “include the Virginia-style language,” regarding invasive trans-vaginal ultrasounds; an early version of the bill specifically referenced that invasive procedure, but Winder removed that clause, instead specifying that patients and doctors could decide which type of procedure to use. However, the bill still required specific information, including recording of the the fetal heartbeat and other data, that opponents said would have required use of the more invasive procedure early in pregnancy, when most abortions occur.

Said Davis, “I wish that I had done a better job in carefully reviewing the effect of the language of that bill.”

The bill still could come up next week in the House, or not; lawmakers are pushing to adjourn their session before the end of next week.