CHARLESTON — CHARLESTON — Absent penalties that initially raised some eyebrows, an update of the Women’s Right to Know Act that makes ultrasound imaging available to women seeking abortions was sent to Gov. Joe Manchin Saturday.

The bill cleared the Senate on a unanimous vote, and there is no doubt how pro-life Manchin will deal with it.

A loud cheer arose at the office of West Virginians for Life when apprised of the Senate vote.

“It’s all about choice,” the group’s president, Karen Cross, said after the 33-0 vote in the Senate.

The House approved the bill a day earlier handily but not until opponents and supporters drew lines in the sand for an hour-long battle. Manchin has long been a pro-life supporter, going back to his days in the Legislature.

Cross said she expects that some women will change their minds about an abortion once shown she is carrying a developing child.

“When she sees the living human child with fingers and toes squirming around, she’s more likely to change her mind,” Cross said.

“When they do change their minds, they find they do have the resources and do have the ability to raise the child.”

As a high schooler, Cross said she became pregnant and had an abortion.

Three months later, she was back in the same fix, but this time, she elected to carry the child to term.

“Now I’m a proud mother and grandmother,” she said.

“I won’t say it’s easy because so often women feel frightened and don’t see how they can do it. But if she’s determined to go on with life for that child, she finds a way more often than she realizes.”

The bill stipulates that abortionists must provide photos or online images of any ultrasounds taken prior to an abortion.

Patients must sign a form, indicating they were offered the choice.

“I just ecstatic,” reflected Hilda Shorter of Sophia, a member of the Morgantown group’s board.

“I know that this will help save babies’ lives when mothers can actually see the baby in the ultrasound.”

Sen. Dan Foster, D-Kanawha, a Charleston surgeon who was among a handful of senators opposing the original Senate measure, had a change of heart.

“I will reluctantly support it only because the onerous penalties for physicians that were in the present code in the Woman’s Right to Know Act will be eliminated ...,” he said.

Existing law can expose a doctor to a reprimand and loss of license for failing to provide all information about the ramification of an abortion in a 24-hour waiting period under the Right to Know Act.

Cross took exception to liberal Democrats in the House who criticized the bill as demeaning and insulting to women.

“Absolutely not,” she said. “It empowers women. The more information a woman has, the more empowered she is. We know that women have been denied the ability to see ultrasound pictures. It’s all about choice to see the ultrasound pictures.”

— E-mail: mannix@register-herald.com