2020 Session Recap Part 1: A Battle Over Life
In what’s been a chaotic, contentious and revolutionary 2020 Session, the General Assembly completed its work on bills over the weekend and now turns its attention to finalizing the 2020-2022 budget this week. In this legislative summary, we tackle one of The Family Foundation’s cornerstone principles – the Sanctity of Life – including issues like abortion and physician-assisted suicide. It has proven to be a year like never before, so there’s a lot to cover!
“Equal Rights Amendment”
Any discussion about the sanctity of life cannot begin without first mentioning the Left’s top legislative priority to ratify the so-called “Equal Rights Amendment” (ERA) Resolution (HJ 1 and SJ 1), which was swiftly voted on and approved before Crossover. The Left is now declaring that Virginia has become the 38th and final state needed to ratify the ERA as part of the U.S. Constitution.
Ratification of the ERA would have far-reaching impacts, but certainly the most destructive impact it would have is to effectively enshrine abortion into the U.S. Constitution forever. If ratified, it would most likely invalidate any restrictions on taxpayer-funded abortion and laws that distinguish between abortion and other medical procedures. Since only women seek abortions, any government policy that restricts access to abortion, or treats it differently than medical procedures performed on men, would probably be ruled unconstitutional.
But just because the General Assembly passed the ERA does not mean it will automatically become the 28th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Not only have the 1972 and 1982 deadlines for ratification expired, with five states (Idaho, Kentucky, Nebraska, South Dakota, and Tennessee) even rescinding their ratification, the National Archivist just last month issued a statement that it will not take steps to certify the adoption of the ERA unless otherwise directed by a final court order, which has not happened. Meanwhile, several federal lawsuits over its legitimacy are ongoing. (Read more about this on our blog HERE.)
All of this is to say, that even though the General Assembly passed the ERA resolution this year, it’ll take years of litigation to settle all of these disputes.
Protections for Women Considering Abortion Demolished
Since 1985, The Family Foundation has fought hard to protect the lives of innocent unborn babies from the horrific practice of abortion and to make sure that mothers who do make the unfortunate choice to have an abortion are at least afforded some basic safety mechanisms. And over the years we’ve celebrated some great legislative achievements like parental notification before a minor can have an abortion (1997), health and safety standards and oversight for abortion centers (2011), and the ultrasound requirement – a “window into the womb” – prior to an abortion (2012).
But tragically in just one session, decades worth of legislation aimed at protecting the unborn and women were wiped away when the General Assembly passed HB 980 (D-Herring) and SB 733 (D-McClellan). These identical bills i) eliminate all basic health and safety standards in abortion facilities, ii) allow nurse practitioners and nurse midwives – not just physicians – to perform abortions, iii) eliminate virtually all requirements of informed consent prior to an abortion, including an ultrasound before performing and abortion, and iii) removes the 24-hour wait period between the ultrasound and the abortion.
To illustrate just how determined they were to strip away these critical safeguards without having to face the obvious criticisms, the House Courts committee, chaired by the House Majority Leader Charniele Herring (the patron of HB 980), tried to pull a “fast one” by adding SB 733 to its docket late in the afternoon – just one hour before the committee meeting, so that no one would likely notice. This was an extraordinary move, since dockets are published online for public notice at least the night before. Meanwhile, the room was packed with Planned Parenthood and NARAL supporters wearing pink and purple – suggesting a coordinated plan to leave our side out of the discussion. But after quickly rallying our allies we were able to shame the Chair into hearing the bill another day to ensure that pro-life values would also be heard.
These bills ensure that abortion centers will no longer have any accountability or oversight, which will only lead Virginia down the dark path of creating safe-havens for the next Kermit Gosnell who’ll jeopardize the lives of women all in the name of convenience and higher profits.
The abortion industry poured millions of dollars into the Virginia elections this past fall, and as the reward for its investment, it once again has unfettered access to abortion that will subject women to even greater harm.
Birth Control, Contraception and Health Benefit Plans
Under the radar, but certainly worth mentioning, was a bill that defined what birth control includes and another to mandate coverage for essential preventative care services in health benefit plans. HB 552 (D-Watts) defines "birth control," for the purposes of the regulation of medicine, as contraceptive methods that are approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. SB 95 (D-Favola) requires a health carrier offering or providing a health benefit plan to include coverage that includes preventive care. These bills not only create more confusion about contraception, and will likely force businesses to pay for coverage of abortifacient drugs or something that can otherwise be purchased over the counter, but further shows just how obsessed they are with this issue.
Pro-life Bills that were never allowed a hearing on
This year there were some great bills that could have actually saved lives, both inside and outside of the womb, but which never received a hearing. One was the Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, SB 1001 (R-Chase), which would have banned abortions after the point at which a baby in the womb can feel pain, which is generally agreed to be around 20 weeks old.
Another was HB 227 (R-Freitas), the Born-Alive Infant Protection Act, which would require abortion providers to exercise the same degree of care to preserve the life of a baby that survives a failed abortion that another healthcare provider would give to any other child born alive.
And despite passing the Senate 40-0, the House Courts of Justice committee refused to hear SB 920 (R-Peake), or HB 1473 (R- L. Adams), bills we initiated that would make void and unenforceable any clause within a surrogacy contract that could require an abortion or “selective reduction,” establishing a much-needed protection for surrogate mothers from being forced to kill the child inside of them. It’s quite the contrast that in a year in which the Left is celebrating the passage of the ERA for women, they fail to provide genuine protections to surrogate mothers to ensure they are not forced into doing something they don’t want to do.
While we knew with the new political majority and a radical pro-abortion Governor, this bill could be a challenge to get passed, it’s incredibly revealing of the seismic shift in values that has taken place in the General Assembly in just one year.
Other noteworthy pro-life bills that never received a hearing or were defeated in committee include:
HB 1356 Informed consent to require physicians to inform patients of the availability of medications, if available, to interrupt a medication-based abortion.
HB 1484 Unborn Child Protection from Dismemberment Abortion Act.
HB 1551 Prohibition of fetal dismemberment.
HB 686 Killing the fetus of another intentionally is guilty of manslaughter, punishable as a Class 5 felony.
HB 1478 Requires the Department of Health to report on the number of frozen embryos unused or made available for adoption.
Close calls – bills that thankfully didn’t pass!
This year there were a number of bad bills that either didn’t make it out of committee or were continued to 2021. Two very concerning bills, SJ 2 and SB 635, would have enshrine a virtually unlimited “right” to abortion in either law or the Virginia Constitution. Adding a right to an abortion in the Virginia Constitution means that even if the U.S. Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade, Virginia would still uphold every form of abortion.
A number of bills (HB 526, HB 39, HB 1445, and HB 1713) were introduced, but carried over to 2021, that sought to mandate that everything from contraception to intrauterine devices (IUDs), to counseling for abortion, to the abortion procedure itself, is paid for through every insurance plans or taxpayer-funded Medicaid.
HR 6 (D- Cornvirs-Fowler), which would have not only have made January 22 the Day of Women, it would have also removed the Day of Tears, honoring the unborn lives lost to abortion, form that day altogether. You can read more about this on our blog HERE.
Finally, there was HB 1649 (D-Kory), a bill that would allow an adult diagnosed with a terminal condition to request, and an attending health care provider to prescribe, a self-administered controlled substance for the purpose of ending the patient's life. Referred to as Physician Assisted Suicide, this bill was fortunately not heard and carried over to 2021. Incredibly, at the same the General Assembly was considering two bills, HB 736 (D-Watts) and SB 637 (D-Surrovel), which were eventually defeated, to reinstate the “death tax” on hard working citizens! It’s just more evidence that there was a real culture of death permeating the halls of the General Assembly this year.
Other bills that thankfully did not pass which would have had major implications for the treatment of life include:
HB 1063 Abolishes the common-law crime for suicide.
SB 917 Requires health benefit plans to cover costs of specified health care services including reproductive health (i.e., abortion).
SB 21 Repealed the parental consent requirement, ultrasound requirement, hospital regulations (SB 21 was incorporated into SB 733, and parental consent was left in).
SB 68 Repealed the ultrasound requirement – (this bill was incorporated into SB 733).
The Family Foundation will never stop fighting to protect unborn life and the health and safety of mothers.
It’s hard to believe that in just one year after the entire country became aware of the radical push for abortion in Virginia, Planned Parenthood and its cohorts would have its entire wish list nearly fulfilled. Or that common-sense bills that actually protect the safety of mothers, and ensure they’re not forced to have an abortion, would be completely ignored. But that’s the unfortunate reality in which we now live.
Pray for our Commonwealth. We need it now more than ever. Notwithstanding these unconscionable actions by a new majority party (with notable exceptions, including Senator Joe Morrissey and Delegate Cliff Hayes), we are committed to restoring the pro-life gains now lost, because LIFE is always worth fighting for. It’s who we are. We appreciate your continued support.
