The House Privileges and Elections Sub-Committee on Constitutional Amendments offered up the first good news of the day when it voted to report HJ 684, patroned by Delegate Scott Lingamfelter (R-31, Woodbridge), which would allow the Board of Education to approve charter schools as a way to get around obstructionist local school divisions that now have sole authority to approve them — and the reason Virginia only has four charter schools.  Then the House Education Committee heard debate and voted to report HB 1442, the “Tebow Bill,” patroned by Delegate Rob Bell (R-58, Albermarle), which would allow homeschooled students to play sports for their local public school; HB 1617, patroned by Delegate Todd Gilbert (R-15, Shenandoah), which protects college student groups from allowing membership to those who fundamentally disagree with the organization’s mission; and HB 1871, a bullying definition bill successfully amended to ensure that it punishes bullies not based on the characteristics of the victim, but on the act of the bully. Additional language added to the bill ensures First Amendment protections.

Passage of the homeschool sports bill and the college student group protection act are legislative priorities for The Family Foundation. The latter would allow student groups at Virginia state colleges to organize according to their beliefs. Unfortunately, some universities around the country have enacted “all-comers” policies that essentially eliminate these groups from being able to set criteria for their members and leaders. Free association is protected by the constitution and this bill seeks to clarify that. It passed by a 19-2 vote. It also passed a similar bill affecting children of military personnel who constantly are re-stationed at various bases or deployed, but whose children stay in the same area with a relative.

Then, the shocker of the day: Overcoming the predictable opposition of the public schools, the Senate Courts of Justice Committee voted 8-6 to report the Parents Rights Bill, SB 908, patroned by Senator Bryce Reeves (R-17, Fredericksburg). It reaffirms Virginia court rulings that parental rights are “fundamental” into state code. This is significant, because fundamental rights are treated with much more deference by the judiciary than “ordinary” rights.

The afternoon was busier. Senator Ralph Northam (D-6, Norfolk) introduced his second bill of the session in the Education and Health Committee to repeal the ultrasound update to Virginia’s informed consent law. Because of its redundancy, committee chairman Senator Steve Martin (R-11, Chesterfield), wasted no time in public debate and it died quickly on an 8-3 vote, prompting Senator Northam to call the committee a “kangaroo court.”

The House Courts of Justice Committee had a full docket as well. After debate, it killed on a 10-6 vote HB 1644, patroned by Delegate Vivian Watts (D-39, Annandale), which would have changed the definition of birth control in the Virginia Code to include abortifacients, including the morning after pill. While advocates claimed it was an innocuous bill, it would have forced pharmacists against their conscience to dispense abortifacients to those 17 and younger. Later, after many questions of concern their Senate counterparts did not have, the committee voted to pass by until Friday the House version of the Parents Rights Bill, HB1642, patroned by Delegate Brenda Pogge (R-96, James City).

Please contact members of the House Courts of Justice Committee and urge them, especially if your delegate is on the committee, to pass HB 1642, to secure basic, fundamental rights of Virginia parent in state code! 

Please also contact your senator to vote yes on SB 908 on the Senate floor and no to any motion that would re-refer it to committee or otherwise kill it.

If that wasn’t enough, sub-committee meetings started in the evening, highlighted by one of the most talked about bills of session, “The Right To Farm Act,” a property rights bill. The highlight of that meeting is detailed in a brief, must read post, here.

Things are moving quickly this week. Please watch your e-mail, this blog and our Facebook and Twitter accounts — which often allow us to update you on events much more quickly — to get the latest news and information on what action to take with your delegates and senators in promoting traditional, conservative family values policies  in Virginia.

She certainly has questions.

Some questions are meant to be reflected on with the one she loves.  Questions of what the future holds, of changes that will undoubtedly take place.  Are we ready?  Will our child be adequately provided for?  How am I going to know what to do?  Who are we going to tell first?

Many questions can only be answered by a doctor.  Can I still have my morning coffee?  Am I really eating for two?  I heard something about vitamins, oh, and not being able to take medication?  She makes an appointment to get her concerns addressed.

She finds out the doctor has some questions for her too.  Have you had any complications with a previous pregnancy?  Are there any disorders or diseases that run in your family?  Do you have a drug or alcohol habit?  And he’s going to need to run some tests.  No need for concern, these are just routine…physical exam, bloodwork, and then of course, an ultrasound.  He wants to be sure of the baby’s age and make sure everything looks alright.

Since the mid-80’s, ultrasound has become standard practice.  Gone are the days of not knowing you’re having twins until they are delivered.  Or surprised by a boy when you thought you were having a girl.  Ultrasound technology makes these kinds of determinations relatively easy, considering the patient is inside a woman’s body.  For a normal pregnancy, the ultrasound is used to determine the age of the child, as well as to be more informed about possible risks to both mother and child particularly towards the end of the pregnancy.  In higher risk pregnancies, it is used to closely monitor the health of the child and mother as the specific high risk issue is kept in check being able to effectively “see” the child grow for 9 months.

Having recently been pregnant myself, I have experienced being continuously asked by family and friends about my ultrasound.  Have I seen or heard the heartbeat?  Am I going to find out what I am having, or do I want it to be a surprise?  Do I have any  pictures to show?  Do you get to do the new, really cool, 4D ultrasounds, where you can actually see the child’s face because the picture is so clear?  I would never turn down a request for an ultrasound.  It is a clear picture of what is blindly happening inside.  Of course I would want to use this medical option in order to get the best possible care for pregnancy.

Which is why I find it ironic that what is considered standard operating procedure by doctors across the board is being met with such resistance.

SB 484 and HB 462 would require an ultrasound to be performed on every pregnant woman, prior to receiving an abortion.

This standard operating procedure, when the child is wanted, will now be standard operating procedure, when the child is not.

But for those determined to “secure abortion, birth control and reproductive rights for all women”, incredibly, an ultrasound is considered “biased and inappropriate information with the intent of dissuading women from exercising their reproductive rights”.  Wait?  Exercising one’s reproductive rights only means choosing to end the life?  And the biased and inappropriate information being talked about is going through a medical procedure that every other pregnant woman goes through?

Proponents are fearful.  Fearful of the truth.  Because something happens when a woman can see what is happening inside her own body.  Something is getting in the way of making that choice to end the life of an unwanted child.  And it is just that…life.  Virginia Women’s Center writes,

For many women, the first peek of their baby on the screen is one of the truly wondrous moments of their lives. Suddenly, the baby is real, and the sense of a growing family gains immediacy and legitimacy…an important bonding experience.

This reaction does not depend on whether the child is wanted or not.  The baby is real.  An important bonding experience.  Hope.

An ultrasound can truly inform and educate a woman with what kind of choice she is really making.  As with most difficult decisions we all must make throughout our lifetime, there are so many different sides of a coin, barriers to choosing what is right.  But there are options.  And many who made the choice to have an abortion wish they had this information, regretting they were uninformed and unaware.  Being offered a chance to truly see what is inside one’s body can be a life-altering request.  As it should be.

Abortion proponents have long stopped fighting when life begins.  Merle Hoffman founded one of the nation’s first abortion clinics.  In her written memoirs, she argues women do know what an abortion is.

They knew it, but my patients who made the choice to have an abortion also knew they were making the right one, a decision so vital it was worth stopping that heart. Sometimes they felt a great sense of loss of possibility. In the majority of cases, they felt a great sense of relief and the power that comes from taking responsibility for one’s own life.

Sadly, she creates a wildly outrageous and revealing statement of those who choose to abort…

The act of abortion positions women at their most powerful, and that is why it is so strongly opposed by many in society.

…because, see, she and the leaders of the pro-choice movement around the world have decided that women do not need more information.  They do not question whether there truly is a life inside that body.  They want the power to control their lives.  And they see the ending of a parasitic relationship with a fetus as giving that control.  “Women have abortions because they care about themselves.”

Help women to get all the information they need.  Help them to be informed.  The ultrasound option does not force women to view the ultrasound, it merely gives them a choice.  If Ms. Hoffman is correct in her assertion that all women know they are stopping a beating heart, this legislation should be of no threat.  Not an image nor statement could change that.  But if the many women, who have come out in regret of their abortion, are correct, this legislation can only begin to repair the deception brought on by folks like Ms. Hoffman.  Women can begin to feel the connection to their child.  Women can make an empowering decision to choose life.

* Since 2004, Focus on the Family has been providing grants to pregnancy resource centers across the nation in order to provide ultrasound technology.  This includes converting the center into a pregnancy medical clinic, as well as providing training for clinic staff and purchasing ultrasound equipment.  Option Ultrasound Program (OUP) knows first hand that viewing an ultrasound can make a difference.  “For women who are abortion minded, seeing that little life on the ultrasound monitor can change their hearts and minds about choosing life for their baby.”

* Please call, write or email your VA delegate and ask him or her to support HB 462.  The full Senate has passed SB 484, but there is still opposition in the House to HB 462.  Your delegate needs to hear from you today!

All of which would explain NARAL and Planned Parenthood’s recent endorsements of Ed and Health Chairman, Senator Edd Houck. Now, Planned Parenthood is organizing phone banks throughout September and October to drive out abortion supporters in Senator Houck’s district. Houck, a Democrat, faces a challenge from Republican Bryce Reeves. In a recent e-mail Planned Parenthood encouraged the “power of pink” to help get Senator Houck reelected.

As chair of Ed and Health, Senator Houck has voted against every pro-life measure brought before the committee, including legislation allowing women to view an ultrasound prior to their abortion and reasonable abortion center safety regulations.  When regulations finally passed the General Assembly this year Senator Houck referred to it as “A terrible tragedy.” To pass the bill, we had to use legislative maneuvers to bypass Senator Houck’s committee.

To his credit, Senator Houck has directed the atmosphere of the committee in a professional way during his tenure, quite the opposite of former committee chair Russ Potts, who publically relished killing pro-life bills and ridiculing pro-life leaders. Instead of using the sledgehammer approach of Russ Potts, Senator Houck prefers using a scalpel. The results are the same, it’s just less painful.

It seems clear that pro-abortion groups are planning to spend a lot of money and do all they can to keep control of the Education and Health Committee. They’ve already placed staff in the field and now are working to protect pro-abortion candidates. Pro-life Virginians need to be aware, just as pro-abortion advocates are, that the future of pro-life legislation in Virginia hangs in the balance this November.

Paid for by The Family Foundation Action.

On Wednesday, it passed legislation adding sexual orientation to state government’s non-discrimination law (SB 747), a bill that gives state government agencies the ability to provide domestic partner benefits (SB 1122), and a proposal that is an attack on Virginia’s abstinence centered family life education policy (SB 967).

In yesterday’s Senate Education and Health Committee, five pro-life bills were defeated, including legislation that would have provided women seeking an abortion an opportunity to view an ultrasound (SB 1435); created wrongful death protections for the unborn (SB 1207 and SB 1378); and criminalized the act of coercing someone to have an abortion (SB 1217). The committee also rejected a bill that would prohibit health insurance companies that provide elective abortion coverage from participating in the state-run exchanges required by President Obama’s federal health insurance scheme (SB 1202).

As in past years, the Senate has proven to be a killing field for pro-family, pro-life legislation, as well as the source of bills that undermine Virginia’s values. The question now becomes, are pro-family Virginians finally tired of this? If so, this November all 40 members of the Senate face re-election. Let’s face it — having the truth and the facts on our side, having a professional team of advocates to influence legislators, having a grassroots network across Virginia simply isn’t enough. We have to change the people who sit in that chamber.

This year is our opportunity to break through this barrier and change the future of Virginia. We need to add more conservative voices to the Senate. When it had a Republican majority in the past the outcome wasn’t much better. We need principled conservatives in office. The Family Foundation and The Family Foundation Action will do everything possible to ensure that Virginians know exactly what the stakes are — and which candidates stand with us and which stand against us — as the elections approach. Please click here to learn more about our Ignite Campaign and how you can help.

Please also know that there are several members of the Senate (15) that voted with The Family Foundation on every one of the bills. We thank them for their stand on principle. We especially thank those Senators who carried pro-life legislation this year, including Mark Obenshain (R-26, Harrisonburg), Ralph Smith (R-22, Botetourt) and Bill Stanley (R-19, Chatham).

Cultural Conservatism’s Comeback (Or Was It Ever Really Dead?)

Who said cultural conservatism is dead? In Virginia last week, there was bipartisan support to end taxpayer funding of elective abortion and within the last 24 hours two major blows for traditional values — and constitutional law — occurred. Yesterday, the Oklahoma Senate joined with the House there in a bipartisan vote to override Democrat Governor Brad Henry’s veto of an informed consent bill which would requires women seeking abortions to see an ultrasound of her baby and receive certain information, not terribly different than a bill we have advocated for in the General Assembly the last several years. (There is always hope!) Then, earlier today, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a memorial Cross on federal land in the Mojave Desert can stay, reversing a lower court ruling.

But was cultural conservatism dead? Hard to believe that when each state that has voted on a Marriage Amendment has passed it. The truth is that there are certain truths in life and embedded in the constitution. Only when they are purposefully misinterpreted and laws misapplied to achieve agenda goals are they ever defeated. But defeat is not death. Values endure. We’ve seen that in the last 24 hours.

News

Gov discusses Confederacy, felons’ rights, condoms (The Daily Press)

Va. ponies up millions to add Northrop (Washington Examiner)

Albemarle tea party crashes Fifth District chairman’s endorsement (Richmond Times-Dispatch)

Audio

Ask The Governor (39:56) (WTOP/WTOP.com)

National News

Strict Abortion Measures Enacted in Oklahoma (New York Times)

States seek new ways to restrict abortions (USA Today)

High court supports Mojave cross in Calif. (AP/FoxNews.com)

High Court Says Mojave Desert Cross Can Remain (Wall Street Journal)

Sounding alarm on gonorrhea (Washington Times)

Poll finds Americans in an anti-incumbent mood as midterm elections near (Washington Post)

Reid: Senate to act on climate before immigration (AP/GOPUSA.com)

GOP eyes comeback for New England House seats (AP/GOPUSA.com)

Not us: Goldman execs deny wrongdoing in crisis (AP/GOPUSA.com)

Obama continues to hammer AZ immigration law (AP/GOPUSA.com)

AG: Court challenge possible on immigration law (AP/GOPUSA.com)

Analysis

How Arizona became center of immigration debate (AP/GOPUSA.com)

Commentary

How Mexico Treats Illegal Aliens (Michelle Malkin/GOPUSA.com)

Trying To Make People Like Us (Harris Sherline/GOPUSA.com)

Arizona’s 21-Bottle Salute (Brent Bozell/GOPUSA.com)

The Return of ‘Social Utility’ (Tony Blankley/GOPUSA.com)

HB 334 (Delegate Bob Marshall, R-13, Manassas): This bill would require that our Informed Consent law be updated to include information that has been published in a peer reviewed medical journal about the consequences of abortion on future pregnancies. Ironically, Planned Parenthood, which has accused pregnancy resource centers of disseminating information that is not “medically accurate,” is opposed to this bill that requires the information given to women at Virginia’s unregulated abortion centers to be exactly that —  medically accurate.

HB 393 (Delegate Matt Lohr, R-26, Harrisonburg): This legislation would require Virginia’s unregulated abortion centers to have on site life saving equipment, as well as require licensing and regular inspection. Currently, Virginia’s abortion centers are unregulated and uninspected.

HB 1042 (Delegate Kathy Byron, R-22, Lynchburg): This bill would require that unregulated abortion centers perform an ultrasound to better determine the gestational age of the unborn child prior to an abortion, and offer the woman seeking the abortion the opportunity to view the ultrasound. It would bring Virginia’s Informed Consent law in line with modern medical technology.

If you are familiar at all with the Virginia General Assembly then you are aware just how antagonistic the majority of the Ed and Health committee usually is toward even the most reasonable pro-life legislation. On an annual basis, we see pro-life bills die on what we have begun to call “Black Thursday” — the last Thursday of committee hearings each session.

Why, bother contacting these legislators who seem so clearly opposed to protecting the unborn? There are several reasons:

First, past votes are not always indications of future action. Legislators change their minds. You may recall Senator Creigh Deeds (D-25, Bath), while running for governor, talking about “growing” as a legislator (he was referring to his flip-flop on the Marriage Amendment). We have worked with legislators who have become more and more pro-life over their time in the legislature, often through the education process associated with debate over these bills.

Which leads to a second reason, education. These bills offer us the opportunity to educate both legislators and the public on these important issues. They give you the opportunity to discuss controversial issues with friends and neighbors by talking about reasonable measures often supported by large majorities. Each time we present these bills to a committee we are able to reach more people with the message of the importance of protecting both the unborn and women who face a crisis pregnancy. You never know when a legislator is going to hear an argument that is going to change their opinion of a certain piece of legislation.

Finally, these votes expose where legislators currently are on reasonable abortion measures. Several members of the Ed and Health committee are in districts that have a pro-life  constituency. These senators mask as “moderate,” but their voting records on these bills have exposed their real positions. Next year, when these senators are up for re-election, the voters in their districts will know exactly where they stand on these issues because they will have a four-year voting record to look at. Voters will then be able to hold them accountable for their votes.

So, please do your part. Contact the members of the Ed and Health committee and urge them to support HB 334, HB 393 and HB 1042.

On January 18, Delegate Kathy Byron (R-22, Lynchburg), a former Family Foundation Legislator of the Year, spoke to pro-family activists at our Family Foundation Day at the Capitol. She focused on two pro-life bills she is carrying this session: HB 1033 (defining a baby as separate from the mother’s body) and HB 1042 (requiring an ultrasound before an abortion). Both bills are still alive. Click on them to get more information and learn where you need to direct your e-mails.

Delegate Kathy Byron speaks on behalf of the unborn — and the born in patroning the “baby bill” this session.

Delegate Kathy Byron asks what’s wrong with making a real choice, an informed choice?

» Placement of a sign on the outside of the center stating, “that it does not perform or refer women for abortions, that it does not provide or refer women for contraception, and that the facility is not required to maintain medical confidentiality or medical records in accordance with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).”

» Collection by the state of all materials distributed at the center.

» Signature by a center’s board member stating that they comply with “all aspects of Heartbeat International, Inc.’s ‘Commitment of Care’ and that the center provides only factually and medically accurate information about pregnancy, contraception, and abortion to a person seeking counseling, information, or assistance from the center.”

» Violation of these accuracy policies by any employee or even a volunteer is subject to a civil penalty.

In announcing the legislation, NARAL released a year-long study “revealing the misinformation and deception” of these centers. Among the study’s claims:

» PRCs rely on deceptive advertising. The example given is of “highly visible” billboards on “well traveled roads” with text such as, “Pregnant? Scared? Need Help? Call us!” Apparently these signs “incite a potential client to call” because they misconstrue it to be a so-called “comprehensive reproductive health care clinic.” In case you are wondering, this deceptive advertising of centers can also be found in the yellow pages when you find these centers under “Abortion Alternatives.”

» Evasive Phone Conversations: The report claims that “If a young woman facing an unintended pregnancy did not know to ask, she would not be told the limits of the crisis pregnancy center’s services.”

» Appearance as Medical Clinics: According to the report, “The center looked like a small doctor’s office. There was a waiting room . . . an office with a glass check-in window. In the bathroom, there was a place to put my urine sample in the wall like at my doctor’s office. … The ultrasound room looked like a room at my gynecologist’s office.”

» Lacks Confidentiality: PRCs are not required by law to abide by federal standards of confidentiality (HIPAA) but, in fact, they do so voluntarily. This report calls out the fact that some centers provide literature that plainly states that if you are a minor, “the center may give certain information to parents or guardians.” Imagine that! Including parents in the decision. I thought that was actually the law of Virginia!

» Medically Inaccurate Information: During today’s press conference, Senator Northam (a medical doctor) highlighted the fact that centers were found to mention a link between abortion and breast cancer that does not exist. This is an area of serious medical debate. Just last year a study was published in a prestigious, peer reviewed medical journal containing an admission from U.S. National Cancer Institute researcher Louise Brinton and her colleagues that in fact abortion raises breast cancer risk by 40 percent. Dr. Northam is not apparently keeping up with the medical literature.

»The study also states that, “CPCs use the ploy of a medical ultrasound to show a woman a fetus and execute an emotional appeal, despite it being an unnecessary medical procedure.”

As I told the media today in response to NARAL’s fallacious claims, Virginia’s lucrative abortion industry is watching women make a different choice than they want them to make and it’s eating into their profits. This new legislation is nothing more than an attempt to scare women from making a choice different than abortion. PRCs have assisted thousands of women in Virginia through crisis pregnancies and not a single woman has ever died. Virginia’s abortion centers cannot say the same.

The Family Foundation will be the guardian of these centers, which faithfully try to serve women in need. But we need your help. In a few short days, I will provide another update on this legislation as it moves into committee. But we need you to contact your legislators and tell them about the wonderful work PRCs do.

We also need you to do something else. Please show your support of these pregnancy resource centers as they face an unwarranted battle in the political arena. Please consider doing one of the following two things: Purchase a Choose Life Plate, $15 of which will fund these centers or call the PRC near you and thank them for their service. If you are able, consider financially supporting them. You can imagine, due to the high costs of operating The Family Foundation, I rarely make appeals on behalf of other organizations, but the work they do is tireless. While the political battle is critical, the front lines cannot be under-resourced.

Finally, if you have been helped by a PRC or you know of someone who benefited from their work, would you consider joining The Family Foundation in defeating this legislation? Would you testify or at least meet with a legislator? If so, please contact our office immediately at 804-343-0010.

Thursday, the Pew Research Center for People & the Press released a national survey (see Pew) that might indicate the Deeds move was the wrong one. Said Pew:

Recently, Americans have become more opposed to legal abortion.

In fact, the division between those who believe abortion should be illegal in almost all cases is nearly even with those who believe it should be legal in most cases, a significant shift. Plus, the number of those who think abortion should be more difficult to obtain also increased (see U.S. News & World Report).

But what should worry Deeds the most is that liberal Democrats polled have lost an extraordinary amount of intensity on the issue. According to Pew:

There has been a 26-point drop since 2006 in the proportion of liberal Democrats who say abortion is a critical issue, from 34 percent to 8 percent.

Ooops! So much for energizing the base.

As with any abortion poll, the news is mixed, but it discloses many positive trends. For example, it indicates an important shift in public opinion away from abortion on demand. It confirms a Gallup poll from May (see Gallup) that shows more Americans consider themselves pro-life than “pro-choice” for the first time in that poll’s history.

So, we are winning this issue on a daily basis by changing hearts and minds. It is nearly impossible to look at the beauty shown by an ultrasound and not recognize the humanity that exists. Any woman who has heard the heartbeat of her unborn child for the first time and then sees the image of that child inside her is drawn naturally to the conclusion that it is a human life worth defending.

More and more people are drawn to that defense, too. Virginians and Americans are joining together for the next several weeks for 40 Days for Life. We urge you to join with them (see how, here) in praying for more hearts and minds to change. Also, call your local pregnancy resource center and lend a hand. Reach out to a woman in crisis and provide for her needs. Together, through prayer and action, and through God’s blessing, we will one day live in a nation that respects all human life — born and unborn.