Last week pro-abortion Virginia State Senators Refused to Protect Babies Who Survive an Abortion and Failed to pass Pro-Women Bills that Would have Helped Women
By Virginia Society for Human Life (VSHL)
Last week, not surprisingly, the Virginia Senate voted to kill three bills that provided women with more information when making decisions about their pregnancy and, shockingly, rejected a bill that would provide reasonable medical care to the born-alive baby who survived an abortion attempt.
None of these bills prevented any woman from obtaining an abortion.
The House of Delegates passed all three bills. These rational and compassionate bills were met with the extremist views of Virginia Democrat Senators led by Sen. Louise Lucas, who made jokes earlier in the session about her plan to “toss any new pro-life bills in the trash.”
The bills were summarily defeated in the Senate Education and Health or Rules committee last week along party lines.
Del. Nick Freitas carried the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors bill again this year. Two years in a row Democrat extremists in the House and Senate ignored the testimony of individuals who actually did survive abortions.
Del. Freitas decried the cold-hearted treatment the bill received in the Senate saying, “Maybe it’s time we start asking the abortion industry what terrifies them so much about making sure that a child who survives an abortion attempt is provided basic medical care.”
YEAS are the pro-abortion votes to kill the bill: Senators Barker, Edwards, Hashmi, Howell, Locke, Lucas, McPike, Petersen. and Saslaw.
NAYS are the pro-life votes to keep the bill alive: Senators Cosgrove, Dunnavant, Newman, Peake, Pillion, and Suetterlein.
The other bills were both intended to help women have the information they need to make a totally informed decision about a pregnancy.
Del. Karen Greenhalgh’s bill would have restored basic requirements about critical information regarding the stage of a woman’s pregnancy, the development of her unborn child as well as possible risks of various types of abortions, and other resources available if she wants to carry the baby to term. It also required that an abortionist must tell her of her legal right to carry if she was facing any coercion or pressure to abort.
YEAS are the pro-abortion votes to kill the bill: Senators Barker, Dunnavant, Edwards, Hashmi, Howell, Locke, Lucas, McPike, Petersen, and Saslaw.
NAYS are the pro-life votes to keep the bill alive: Senators Cosgrove, Newman, Peake, Pillion, and Sutterlein.
Del. Tara Durant’s bill would simply have required the Dept. of Health to establish and maintain a website that lists free support services and programs in the Commonwealth that aid the woman and her child at little or no cost through pregnancy and childhood. Thank you to Dr. Carla King, MD, and Michelle Johnson, R.N., from the Chesterfield pregnancy center for testifying to such a hostile committee. We will be back next year.
YEAS are the pro-abortion votes to kill the bill: Senators Barker, Deeds, Ebbin, Edwards, Favola, Howell, Lewis, Locke, Lucas, Marsden, Saslaw, and Spruill.
NAYS are the pro-life votes to keep the bill alive: Senators McDougle, Newman, and Norment.
Senators Petersen and Vogel did not vote.
“The fact that the Virginia Senate refused to support these rational bills is a clear indication of the lockstep, radical attitude towards unrestricted abortion through all nine months of pregnancy that half of our General Assembly members hold,” said Olivia Gans Turner, President of the Virginia Society for Human Life.
“In a show of just how extreme they are, the only measure about abortion passed by the Senate this year was a ‘Right to Abortion Amendment’ that would enshrine Roe v. Wade in the Virginia constitution. The result of such an amendment would be abortion with no regulations or limits in Virginia.” said Turner.
House of Delegates Committee moves to stop the “Right to Abortion Amendment”
In a final hearing of the House Courts of Justice Sub-Committee, SJ255, the Senate version of the dangerous amendment to enshrine Roe v. Wade, was defeated. The subcommittee voted 5 to 3 along party lines.
Chairman Delegate Les Adams (R) took testimony from several Virginia pro-life groups, including VSHL, as well as critical testimony from Professor Teresa Collette, J.D. from St. Thomas University in Minnesota.
Prof. Collette spelled out in no uncertain terms that if this amendment were to be adopted it would in fact strike all of the remaining pro-life laws Virginia has and would make it almost impossible to pass any new ones.
The bill should be done this session, but pro-abortion members of the House of Delegates are using a rare tactic during this final week of the 2023 session to force a vote on the full floor of the House. It is therefore still important for pro-life Virginians to contact their Delegate and ask him or her to oppose the Right to Abortion Amendment.
STOP THE EXTREME RIGHT-TO-ABORTION IN VIRGINIA
YEAS are the pro-life votes to kill the pro-abortion amendment: Delegates Adams (Les), Bell, Ransone, Williams, and Campbell (Ellen).
NAYS are the pro-abortion votes to keep the pro-abortion amendment alive: Delegates Watts, Herring, and Delaney.
There will be several more days of debate on the floor as Democrats attempt to change the rules to get a vote on the floor to pass the Right to Abortion Amendment
Starting on Thursday last week pro-life members took to the floor of the full House to voice the frustration of many in the General Assembly due to the deliberate refusal of pro-abortion members in the Senate to pass any reasonable pro-life bill this year. Del. Freitas and Del. Emily Brewer, herself a new mother, spoke passionately about the right to life and the shocking hostility to these rational bills shown by their Democrat colleagues in the General Assembly.
FDA Chemical Abortions Drugs: Recent Developments
In early January, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) updated labeling for mifepristone (generic for Mifeprex) that would allow pharmacies to dispense the drug. In issuing the new regulations, the FDA formalized a decision made in 2021 to permanently drop the in-person requirement for the distribution of the abortion pill.
Please sign the petition to tell CVS, Walgreens, and Rite Aid to
STOP DISPENSING DEADLY ABORTION PILLS!