Delegate Bob Marshall (R-Manassas) introduced several bills taking different approaches to licensing of abortion clinics. The one that emerged from the Health, Welfare and Institutions committee on a 14-8 vote, HB 2367, would have required all abortion clinics, in which 25 or more first trimester abortions are performed annually, to be licensed and to comply with the requirements currently in place for ambulatory surgery centers. The bill went on to pass the House by better than a two-to-one margin, a vote of 65-31 (see vote H7).

The Senate never got a chance to vote on the bill since it was killed in the Education and Health committee on February 13 on a close 7-8 vote (see vote E1). Two weeks earlier, the same committee killed a bill introduced by Sen. Ken Cuccinelli (R-Centreville) that would have required abortion clinics performing 25 or more abortions annually to be included in the regulatory requirements for hospitals. In that 7-7-1 vote, the voting was the same except that Sen. Lambert abstained, but since eight votes were needed to send the bill to the Senate floor, the effect of the abstention was the same as a negative vote.

Published in VSHL Lifesaver, April 2003