A Republican supermajority has muscled two of the most restrictive anti-abortion bills in years through the Virginia House, including one that would all but outlaw the procedure in the state by declaring that the rights of persons apply from the moment sperm and egg unite.
The bills passed over bitter yet futile objections from Democrats. And one GOP delegate caused the House to ripple when he said most abortions come as "matters of lifestyle convenience."
Delegate Bob Marshall's House Bill 1 on personhood at conception passed on a 66-32 vote. And on a 63-36 vote, the House passed a bill that requires women to have a "transvaginal ultrasound" before undergoing abortions.
Opponents said the bills are unprecedented intrusions into the prerogatives and decisions not just of pregnant women but of women trying to avoid conceiving.
"The General Assembly is dangerously close to making Virginia the first state in the country to grant personhood rights to fertilized eggs," said Tarina Keene of NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia.
Marshall's bill had passed the conservative House several times over the years, only to bog down and die in a moderate Senate. This time, it stands to survive a Senate under new conservative control after last fall's election stripped the Democrats of power.
Republican Gov. Bob McDonnell, a socially conservative Roman Catholic, has said he will sign the ultrasound bill but has taken no position on Marshall's personhood bill, said spokesman J. Tucker Martin.
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7 comments:
And who has to pay for this ultrasound?
Probably the same person who is about to pay somebody to murder the baby.
This will never pass - ultimately. When will the government learn that women will not stand for anyone telling them what they can or cannot do with their bodies? Stay out of my health care!
It isn't a baby - yet! Just more crap to make it hard. Women who want to end a pregnancy will do so. Let's keep it safe and not return to the back alleys. Be courageous, Virginia, and vote this down. If you don't, the Supreme Court will have to do it for you.
9:37
The baby inside is not the woman's body. It is the babies body.
Lets protect the rights of the baby.
11:23, anything IN my body is part of my body. I agree with 9:39
1:11
The baby disagrees with you.
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