The two top pro-life legislative priorities for the 2003 session became law this month, with no weakening amendments. The Virginia General Assembly rejected unacceptable amendments recommended by Governor Mark Warner and passed into law a ban on partial-birth infanticide and a requirement for parental consent prior to a minor’s abortion.

“The Virginia Society for Human Life is happy that the Virginia Senate and House stood firm and rejected Governor Warner’s attempt to gut the partial-birth infanticide ban and make the legislation useless,” stated Brenda Fastabend, VSHL President. “We have witnessed just how extreme the Governor and some members of the legislature are in trying to protect abortion for any reason at any point. Thankfully, they are in the minority.”

In a press release issued on April 2, VSHL commended Senator Steve Newman (R-Lynchburg) and Delegate Bob Marshall (R-Manassas), the chief patrons of the partial-birth infanticide ban, for maintaining their strong positions and leadership roles in defending the most helpless, the child in the process of birth, from being killed. On passing parental consent, the legislators also recognized the need to have a parent’s signature notarized before a minor’s abortion, in order to prevent abuse.

Following are the details of these exciting pro-life victories:

Partial-Birth Infanticide

Specifically, the bills say that birth occurs in the case of a head first presentation, when the infant’s entire head is outside the body of the mother, or, in the case of breech presentation, when any part of the infant’s trunk past the navel is outside the body of the mother. Killing the baby after this point is then infanticide.

Del. Bob Marshall introduced HB 1541 into the House of Delegates and Sen. Steve Newman introduced SB 1205 into the State Senate, both banning partial-birth infanticide. The House Courts of Justice committee reported HB 1541 out on a strong 18-4 vote and the House of Delegates passed it on February 1 by an overwhelming 72-27 vote (see vote H1) . Three days later, the Senate passed SB 1205 on a 27-12 vote (see vote S1) after it received a 9-6 approval in the Senate Education and Health committee, which in the past had earned a reputation as the graveyard for pro-life bills. The bills then went to the opposite chambers and were passed by similar (although not identical) margins. A conference committee was appointed since the versions of the bills passed by the House and Senate were somewhat different in wording. The result was identical wording for both bills, which were passed in both chambers on February 22 by even stronger margins.

Governor Mark Warner returned the bills to the General Assembly with an amendment adding a health exception to the bill. The Governor did not explain how killing a baby that is substantially born could in any way prevent injury to the mother’s health. Legislators in Richmond also disagreed and the Governor’s recommendation was rejected by margins of 75-25 (see vote H2) in the House of Delegates and 28-12 (see vote S2) in the Senate.

Parental Consent

HB 1402 emerged from the House Courts of Justice committee on a 17-5 vote and was passed on February 1 by a vote of 70-29 (see vote H3). Three days later, SB 1124 passed the Senate on a 27-11 vote (see vote S3) after an earlier 9-6 vote in the Education and Health committee. As with the infanticide bills above, both bills were subsequently passed in the opposite bodies but with wording differences that necessitated a conference committee. The final bills were passed in both chambers on February 22.

Governor Warner returned the bills with amendments that removed the important requirement for notarization and made modifications to the judicial bypass requirements. These were rejected by legislators on votes of 69-31 and 70-30 in the House (see vote H4) and 29-11 in the Senate (see vote S4).

Published in VSHL Lifesaver, April 2003