What a difference one election makes!
This morning, the Senate Education and Health committee voted 8-7 to advance to the full Senate, SB 484, a bill patroned by Senator Jill Holtzman Vogel (R-27, Winchester) that updates Virginia’s informed consent law to require a woman to have an ultrasound performed prior to an abortion and offer her the opportunity to view it if she so chooses. Senator Ralph Smith (R-19, Roanoke) patroned a very similar bill that was incorporated into SB 484.
Today’s victory was the first passage of a substantial pro-life bill through the Senate Education and Health committee in nine years, a truly historic moment for pro-life Virginians.
Both proponents and opponents of the bill showed up in full force this morning. Organizations submitting testimony in favor of the bill included The Family Foundation, Americans United for Life, the Virginia Society for Human Life, the Virginia Catholic Conference, and the Virginia Assembly of Independent Baptists. Additionally, the committee heard testimony from Dr. John Kuta, a radiologist from the Richmond area, who spoke to the medical efficacy of the bill. Dr. Kuta brilliantly refuted numerous arguments from Senator (and Doctor) Ralph Northam (D-6, Virginia Beach) who is an avid opponent of the ultrasound bill. In addition to Dr. Kuta, a Family Foundation supporter and her son testified about their personal story regarding an ultrasound. The mother who testified, adopted her son at birth after his birth mother had an ultrasound and decided to continue her pregnancy instead of having an abortion.
As usual, the abortion industry, including the ACLU, Planned Parenthood, NARAL, Virginia Progressives, the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology, and the Virginia League of Women Voters vocalized their opposition to the bill. The objections ranged from the concerns the ultrasound would be cost prohibitive to a wild claim that a woman becoming so emotional traumatized over an offer of an ultrasound that she might consider suicide! The Family Foundation videotaped this historic committee proceeding and tomorrow, it should be available for viewing on our YouTube channel.
There is still much work to be done regarding this bill – it must additionally pass on the Senate floor (likely next week), pass successfully through the House committee system (likely late February or early March), and then pass on the House floor (late February or early March) before it is sent to the Governor for a signature. Please continue praying for those who will vote on this important bill – pray that SB 484 will find favor with them and that they would see the potential impact this bill could have for the protection of life and the safety of women. Thank you to those who contacted their Senators and urged them to vote in favor of adding an ultrasound requirement to informed consent. As you can see from today’s monumental vote – each senator’s vote was critical. Join with us as we celebrate this historic pro-life victory!
Why are there no burial rites/rituals or death certificates for early pregnancy, spontateously aborted (e.g., miscarried) fetuses if they have “personhood”? Why do the fetusus in clinical abortions find themselves treated differently? Why does the only 8-week fetus that has a soul turn out to be the one whose mother wants to abort it, and how do you justify trying to drastically change people’s options in the face of that glaring double-standard? As members of the party of “high moral ground,” you are absolutely obliged to not deal in double-standards, and yet you shamelessly do it! Unil there is a death notice and burial rite/ritual for the woman whose 8-week fetus spontaneously aborts, then you have NO business interfering with people’s choices in that arena. Come on—where are they? Where are the burial rites and death certificates for the TWENTY PER CENT of fetusus that end in spontaneous abortion (miscarriage)? You mean to tell me that the only fetusus that have personhood are the ones that end up in a clinic rather than in a toilet? You are shameless, uninetlligent people whose lack of critical thinking skills and lack of humility make you a danger to society.
I don’t understand the point of your argument. It is true that spontaneously aborted fetuses do not usually receive burial rites and death certificates; are you saying that this fact justifies taking the lives of fetuses who otherwise would have lived?
Nor do I understand how you get from this assertion to the assertion that pro-life people are shameless, unintelligent, and dangerous. Have you heard of “ad hominem”?
Kirsten,
You can’t understand her argument because she really doesn’t have one.
She is trying to assert that since the Commonwealth does not require a death certificate for miscarriages, then children lost in either miscarriage or abortion were not persons to begin with.
I am glad that the ultrasound bill is progressing through the legislative process and look forward to its passage in the House and eventual signature by the governor. Fior those of you that may wish to track the bill, here’s the URL http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?121+sum+SB484
Keep up the good work–