TALLAHASSEE - The Florida House on Wednesday mounted what critics called a two-pronged assault on abortion rights, passing legislation that would require pregnant women to undergo ultrasound exams before getting abortions and effectively defining life at conception for criminal prosecutions.

Any woman seeking to terminate a pregnancy would be required to pay for an ultrasound procedure — and view the results unless she signed a waiver — before having the abortion, under a bill passed by the House largely along party lines. [...]

Ultrasound scans already are required for women seeking abortions in their second and third trimesters; the bill expands the requirement to include early-term pregnancies.