BOISE (AP) — Idaho stepped closer to requiring women to undergo a fetal ultrasound before terminating a pregnancy, joining states including Virginia and Texas where abortion opponents are hoping the measures will cause women to reconsider abortion.

Boise Sen. Chuck Winder's legislation cleared the Senate State Affairs Committee Wednesday on a 7-2 vote, with Republicans in favor and Democrats opposing.

About 240 people packed an emotional two-hour hearing, and rhetoric was hyperbolic on each side. Critics compared the bill to laws favored by extremists such as the Taliban. And advocates said their opponents were as bad as Holocaust deniers.

Under Idaho's measure, a doctor performing an abortion would have to conduct an ultrasound examination. Women would be given the option of viewing the fetal ultrasound image and listening to a fetal heartbeat. But they could decline by initialing a release form.

The measure would provide up-to-date information that would help pregnant women recognize the consequences of abortion, said Susan Young, director of Life Choices Pregnancy Center, an anti-abortion clinic in Sandpoint.

"They say a picture is worth a thousand words," Young told lawmakers. "This bill would require a woman to have a real picture with sound of the fetus she's about to have removed from her body."

The bill now heads to the Senate floor for what's likely to be a heated debate.

In Virginia, police in riot gear recently had a standoff with women's-rights demonstrators on the Capitol steps.

Meanwhile, Texas has been enforcing a similar law enacted last year that makes vaginal ultrasound a precondition for many abortions. Its law also requires women hear their doctors describe the fetus' development during the ultrasound, and then wait 24 hours before undergoing the abortion.

Alabama is considering similar legislation.

Eleven states including Idaho now require verbal counseling or written materials to include information on accessing ultrasound services, according to the Guttmacher Institute.

At least seven states mandate that an abortion provider perform an ultrasound on each woman seeking an abortion and require the provider to offer the woman the opportunity to view the image.

Winder altered his original proposal, which could have required a vaginal ultrasound in which a device is inserted into a woman's vagina rather than a less-invasive abdominal ultrasound.

Instead, his bill leaves such decisions up to medical providers in consultation with the patient.

Still, that change appeared to do little or nothing to assuage the concerns of foes who call this measure an example of government leaders inserting themselves into medical decisions best left to women and their doctors in the privacy of an office.

"I'm not aware of any precedent to this — the government mandating a medical procedure, and unfunded, no less," said Heather Hammerstedt, a Boise doctor.

Opponents also complained that requiring an ultrasound could add significantly to costs of an abortion and raised additional concerns that the measure provides no exceptions for medical emergencies or in instances when a woman is victim of rape or incest.

Yvette Sedlewicz called such a procedure akin to "mechanical rape" and even "torture."

"This is a violation of medical privacy between a woman and her physician," Sedlewicz said. "Keep your noses out of women's business."

Brandi Swindell, an anti-abortion activist who helped start a medical clinic in Boise, Stanton Healthcare, to counsel women against abortion, told lawmakers she would soon be reserving a room at the Capitol to demonstrate an ultrasound procedure.

Following the meeting, Swindell said she's still organizing a lawmaker to sponsor such an exhibition.

She gave no date, but predicted, "This will be the first time in the nation that babies themselves will be testifying. That's never happened."