Abortion bills die in General Assembly committee

Votes fell along party lines on the bills, which covered topics including changing regulations applying to clinics that perform abortions and preventing women from having to report cases of rape or incest to law enforcement if they are receiving an abortion funded by the state.

The 15-member Senate Committee on Education and Health has eight Republican members and seven Democrats, which was the deciding factor in the 8-7 votes to stop the bills from advancing.

For each bill, more than a dozen supporters from organizations such as NARAL Pro Choice Virginia and the Virginia League for Planned Parenthood spoke, followed by a handful of those opposing from groups like The Family Foundation.

Sen. Jennifer McClellan, D-Richmond, characterized her bill requiring the Board of Health to fund an abortion in cases of rape or incest without sending a report to law enforcement as protecting survivors. She said survivors often need time to recover from the traumatic experience before making a report to police but may require an abortion right away.

Sen. Mamie Locke, D-Hampton, applauded McClellan for bringing the legislation forward, and added that she was probably the only member of the committee who had been a victim of incest.

She addressed the comments of Sen. Richard Black, R-Loudoun, who had expressed concern that the bill would “open the floodgates for state funding of abortion” and would “invite fraud in using state funds in order to fund elective abortions.”

“I don’t think this opens the floodgates to anything other than women ending their victimization,” Locke responded. “And I think that to simply say that women are going to come up and say, ‘Oh, oh, give me an abortion’ ... to ease their way out of an unwanted pregnancy is foolhardy.

“I’m just upset at the fact that people think that way and feel that way about us as women,” she added. “That’s why women have been silent for so long and have not voiced how they have been raped and sexually assaulted or have been victims of incest, because of some of the thinking that I’ve heard here.”

Sen. Amanda F. Chase, R-Chesterfield, said she couldn’t support the bill, citing concerns that it wouldn’t sufficiently protect “both our men and women in situations in which alcohol is involved.”

“I want to ensure not only that the women are protected, but that we’re using the legal process that’s in place and that that’s not taken away from the fathers,” she continued. “I’ve heard court cases where the father had no idea that the woman was even pregnant and would have supported that situation.”

The committee also killed a bill sponsored by Sen. Barbara A. Favola, D-Arlington, that would stop the state from categorizing clinics that provide five or more first trimester abortions a month as hospitals. The law currently adds unnecessary regulatory burdens for those facilities, she said.

The facilities are held to an undue burden, Favola said, noting that the state allows other procedures to take place outside hospitals, such as colonoscopies and some surgeries, “that have a much higher rate of injury or even death.”

Those opposing the bill claimed that the regulations keep women safe, and Black said regulations on the facilities were put in place because “we did not want to have back-alley procedures. We wanted women treated in a dignified way.”

Locke also had a bill knocked down by the committee. The legislation would have allowed women seeking an abortion to waive requirements that otherwise must be met before the procedure is performed, such as that a certain period of time must pass.