Partial-Birth Infanticide, Parental Consent to be Top Issues in General Assembly
Heading the list of pro-life issues this session of the Virginia General Assembly will be bills to ban partial-birth infanticide and to require parental consent before abortion on a minor. With two additional pro-life votes in the State Senate this year, the chances of passing pro-life bills are significantly improved.
Partial-Birth Infanticide
Bills to ban “partial birth infanticide” have been introduced in the House of Delegates as HB 1541 by Delegate Bob Marshall (R-Manassas) and in the Senate as SB 1205 by Senator Steve Newman (R-Lynchburg). These bills take an approach that is different from previous partial-birth abortion bills, which were rendered unconstitutional by the Supreme Court’s Stenberg v. Carhart decision in the year 2000. These new bills refine the state’s definition of when birth occurs, which is permissible, and prohibit the killing of an infant born under that definition. Once an infant is born, the state may constitutionally preclude the child’s killing. Thus, these are infanticide bills, not abortion bills.Specifically, the bills make “partial birth infanticide” a felony and define it as deliberately and intentionally vaginally delivering a living infant until, in the case of a head-first presentation, the infant’s entire head is outside the body of the mother, or, in the case of a breech presentation, any part of the infant’s trunk past the navel is outside the body of the mother, for the purpose of killing the partially delivered infant, and then killing the infant.
Parental Consent
A parental consent bill, HB 1402, has been introduced in the House of Delegates. Del. Richard Black (R-Sterling) is the chief patron and is joined by 46 delegates and 17 senators as co-patrons on the initial filing of the bill. The bill would replace the current requirement for notification of an “authorized person” (defined as a parent, legal guardian or custodian, or person standing in loco parentis), with a requirement for consent. The bill requires either the minor to give to the abortionist a notarized, written statement signed by the authorized person, or the authorized person to be present with the minor.A similar parental consent bill passed the House of Delegates overwhelmingly last year on a 73-25 vote but died in the Senate Education and Health Committee on a tie 7-7 vote. As last year, it will be critical for the bill to pass a Senate committee to get to the floor of the Senate where it is likely to pass.
Other Bills
Del. Black has also again introduced a bill, HB 1406, to authorize a special license plate with “CHOOSE LIFE” on it. After the first thousand registrations, the bill provides that fifteen dollars of the twenty-five dollar fee be put into a Choose Life Fund which would be disbursed annually to the localities where the vehicles are registered, where it would then be distributed to counseling and other services for expectant mothers who are committed to placing their children for adoption.Del. Kathy Byron (R-Lynchburg) has again introduced a bill, HB 1741, to broaden the conscience clause so that pharmacists, physicians or other medical or health care professionals will not be required to dispense medication “for the purpose of performing an abortion.” The current clause only applies to hospitals, medical facilities or physicians for performing abortions. Her similar bill last year passed the House 79-20 but died in the Senate Education and Health Committee.
Del. Morgan Griffith (R-Salem) has introduced two “safe haven” bills (HB 2447 and HB 2448) that differ in details but essentially would allow a mother to abandon her newborn baby at certain facilities (e.g., a hospital) without fear of prosecution. The purpose is to provide an alternative for desperate mothers who otherwise might abandon their babies in ways that could be harmful to the babies.
Del. Marshall has taken an interesting approach to abortion clinic regulation. His bill, HB 1645, redefines “hospital” to include “any clinic or other facility performing 25 or more abortions per year,” so that all hospital regulations would then apply.
Action
Bills tend to move very quickly in the General Assembly. Please be sure to contact your delegate and senator and urge them to support these pro-life bills. You can send a message to your delegate or senator by calling 1-800-889-0229 (in Richmond 698-1990) between 7 am and 7 pm. You can find the direct telephone numbers and email addresses of all delegates and senators at the General Assembly web site: legis.state.va.us. If you don’t know who your legislators are, go to that web address and click on “Who’s My Legislator.”Other pro-life bills are being introduced as we go to press. Please check the “Action Items” and “Legislation” pages of this VSHL web site to keep up to date on what is happening as the session progresses and who needs to be contacted.
Published in VSHL Lifesaver, January 2003
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