|  | | Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act in Senate, House of Delegate Committees
The Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act has been assigned to the Senate Education and Health Committee and the House Courts of Justice Committee. Please check the list below and contact your Senator or Delegate if he/she s on one of these Committees and urge them to support and sign on as a co-Patron on this important legislation. The bill number in the Senate is SB 637 and in the House of Delegates it is HB 1285.
Click the link below to see the State Senators on the Health and Education Committee and Delegates on the Courts of Justice Committee along with their Capitol Phone Number, District Phone Number, and email address. If they have already agreed to be a co-Patron that is noted as well. If your Senator or Delegate is on the list, please contact them today. If you are not sure who your Senator or Delegate you can find out here on the VSHL website.
If you get a response from your Senator or Delegate please let us know at info@vshl.org so we can notify the VSHL Lobbying Team.
There could be hearings on the Pain-Capable legislation as soon as Monday, January 31 so please act today! | | | | Fetal Pain Questions & Answers Recognizing that medical science demonstrates that certainly by 20 weeks after fertilization unborn children are capable of experiencing pain, the Act prevents abortions thereafter in the absence of a significant risk to the mother. Do Unborn Children Really Experience Pain? By twenty weeks after fertilization, all the physical structures necessary to experience pain have developed. Download a PDF of this Fact Sheet from the National Right to Life Committee on Fetal Pain here:
Fetal Pain Q & A Fact Sheet | | | | VSHL Distributes Roses to State Elected Officials 
In keeping with an over 20-year tradition, Louise Hartz, past president of the Virginia Society for Human Life (VSHL), distributed roses to the offices of Governor McDonnell, Lieutenant Governor Bolling, Attorney General Cuccinelli, and each member of the House of Delegates and State Senate. The roses commemorated the 39th anniversary of Roe v. Wade on January 22nd. Each rose was accompanied by a card identifying the donor as VSHL and a Pain of the Unborn Pamphlet.
Louise Hartz gives a rose to Senator Mark Obenshain (R-26th district) the sponsor of SB-637, Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act. | | | | Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act Introduced in the Virginia General Assembly
The Virginia Society for Human Life is pleased to announce today that the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act has been introduced into the Virginia General Assembly 2012 Session. The bill, which has been introduced in both Houses of the General Assembly, is a powerful new protective law that recognizes the humanity of unborn children from a unique perspective, their ability to feel pain in the womb.
In the Senate, Senator Mark Obenshain, R -26th district is the chief patron. In the House the bill’s chief patron is Delegate Rich Anderson, R- 51st district. The Senate bill is SB 637. The House version is HB 1285. Already there are several members on both sides of the aisle that have expressed support for this important pro-life bill, including Sen. Chuck Colgan, D – 29th district.
This important bill, developed for VSHL with the help of the National Right to Life Committee State Legislation team, would protect unborn children from abortion after the point during pregnancy at which it can be scientifically proven that the baby in the womb is capable of feeling pain. The Unborn Child Protection Act has already passed into law in 5 other states, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Idaho and Alabama. It is the hope of VSHL that the Commonwealth of Virginia will be the sixth state to pass this life saving law.
Now that the bill has been officially introduced we need to have as many VSHL members and supporters get involved to help ensure this bill passes into law.
There are three things you can do today to help.
- Contact your own Delegate and Senator to ask them to co-Sponsor or publicly support SB 637 and HB 1285.
- Go to www.vshlpetition.org and sign the petition to the General Assembly
- Donate to VSHL to help fund our efforts to lobby both the House of Delegates and State Senate to support this bill.
Please send any feedback you get from your legislators to info@vshl.org.
You can get more information on the pain unborn babies may feel during an abortion at the VSHL Website.
We know that Planned Parenthood and their pro-abortion allies in the State Senate and House of Delegates will do everything they can to stop this legislation. So today is only the first step and VSHL needs your help to advance this bill.
You can get updates on the status of the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, and other important pro-life legislation, by visiting www.vshl.org, "Liking" our Facebook page or following us on twitter @VSHL_info. | | | | NRLC Convention Workshop on Fetal Pain
Listen to remarks given by Mary Spaulding Balch, J.D., and Steven Zielinski, M.D., J.D., at the 2011 National Right to Life Convention. Mary Spaulding Balch, NRLC’s State Legislative Director, was instrumental in crafting legislation that protects unborn children from abortion after they are capable of feeling pain. The Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act is now law in five states.
Passing the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act is the number one Priority for VSHL in the 2012 General Assembly.
Thank you!
Olivia Gans,
President | | | | Fetal Pain Fact Sheet
What does an unborn child feel during an abortion?
Download this Fact Sheet from the National Right to Life Committee to read about this important issue. This Fact Sheet explains in detail what is necessary for an unborn child to feel pain. For example, did you know that "Four or five weeks after conception, pain receptors appear around the mouth, followed by nerve fibers, which carry stimuli to the brain. By 18 weeks, pain receptors have appeared throughout the body. Around week 6, the unborn child first responds to touch."
Once you read this brochure I am sure you will want to share this information with your family and friends to help VSHL educate all Virginians about this vital issue.
Educating Virginians about the pain unborn children suffer during an abortion is just the beginning. The next step is to pass the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act here in Virginia to stop these abortions. You can help make that happen by going to www.vshlpetition.org and signing our petition to the Virginia General Assembly to pass this legislation.
Thank you!
Olivia Gans,
President | | | | Looking Forward for Life!
On January 11 the Virginia General Assembly started their 2012 session. I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate all of the members in both the Virginia Senate and the House of Delegates as they begin the important work of the Session. Welcome in particular to all the newly elected members in both houses, many of whom are pro-life.
VSHL is very hopeful that during this year’s session we will see pro-life legislation proceed through the General Assembly. We are looking forward to working closely with our representatives at the GA to successfully pass the most protective legislation possible for the unborn, those with disabilities, and the dependent elderly.
There will be a number of bills that will draw our attention and support, including bills that will seek to ban deadly embryonic stem cell research in Virginia. Also on that list to watch is a bill to expand access to information for women before an abortion, including the chance to view an ultra-sound image of their own child.
The number one priority of VSHL will be to see the passage of the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act. This important bill, which also enjoys the support of the Family Foundation and the Virginia Catholic Conference, will, if passed, ban all abortion after the point in the pregnancy when the unborn child can feel pain. This is a powerful new law that has already passed in 5 states, Nebraska, Idaho, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Alabama. It is our hope that Virginia will become number six! Your help and support will make that happen.
Let me encourage all of you to send a message to your representatives this week, welcoming them back to Richmond and also asking for their support for important and reasonable pro-life legislation, like the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act. They have a chance to do the right thing and provide true protection for the unborn and other innocent human life this year and we are counting on them to do it well.
Please continue to come to the VSHL website for more information about this powerful new bill, further updates and a link to the Virginia General Assembly to find your Delegate and Senator.
Don't forget to sign our online petition to support this life-saving bill at www.vshlpetition.org. Please share this with your friends and family too!
Thank you for all you do to help VSHL spread the Pro-life message. Sincerely, Olivia L. Gans, President
| | | | VSHL Press Release on Abortion Clinic Regulations
Virginia Society for Human Life issued a Press Release about Gov. McDonnell signing the Abortion Clinic Regulations.
VSHL President Olivia Gans said: “Abortion is always a deadly procedure that stops the beating heart of an unborn child, even after that baby can feel pain, but it is also a dangerous procedure for their mothers. It is important to do everything we can to prevent that danger from happening.”
Please click the link below to read the full press release.
| | | | Pro-lifers Win Majorities in 2011 Election! Virginia Society for Human Life congratulates the winners in yesterday’s elections and celebrates the victory of so many pro-life candidates. The voice of the people of Virginia has been heard clearly, and that voice is decidedly pro-life! Eleven of VSHL endorsed candidates for the Virginia Senate were elected yesterday along with twenty-one endorsed members of the House of Delegates. A total of four new pro-life members were elected to the State Senate, along with eighteen incumbent pro-life Senators. This means that there is now, after many years, a pro-life majority of twenty-two members of the Virginia Senate. "This election proves that the pro-life increment is decisive in close races. We devoted our efforts to educating voters on the extreme voting records of pro-abortion incumbent senators. As of this writing, pro-life challenger Bryce Reeves leads pro-abortion incumbent State Sen. Edd Houck, in a race where the life issue was dominant in the closing days of the campaign,” said Holly Smith, Chairman of the VSHL PAC. In the House of Delegates twelve new pro-life members were elected. Fifty-seven pro-life incumbents held on to their seats to bring the total number of the pro-life majority to sixty-nine. VSHL PAC, Virginia’s only single issue, pro-life Political action committee, worked throughout the Commonwealth to help elect pro-life candidates by defeating pro-abortion incumbents Robin Abbott and Minority Leader Ward Armstrong, as well as Bill Barlow, who had a mixed voting record on life issues. “The will of the people of Virginia has spoken and it is clearly pro-life”, said Olivia Gans, President. “We look forward to working with all the members of the General Assembly in 2012 in order to pass truly protective legislation for the unborn and their mothers, those with disabilities, and the elderly.” VSHL is committed to the protection of innocent human life from conception to natural death. **************** 
| | | | Spectacular News for Dedicated Virginia Pro-Life College Students
 The fee for the 2012 National Right to Life Academy for College Students has been reduced to $3600. The fee covers tuition, residence at a nearby university and some meals.
The five week Academy is held annually in Washington, D.C. at the headquarters of the National Right to Life Committee located right downtown within a short distance of both the Capitol and the White House.
The date for this year’s Academy is June 24-July 27.
The deadline to apply for the unique and incomparably valuable pro-life program is March 1!
Get your heads together and send a smart, dedicated pro-life college student (s) to the NRLC 2012 Academy.
The e-mail for application forms and further information you may seek is: academy@nrlc.org
| | | | Abortion Facility Regulations Approved Virginia Society for Human Life is pleased that the Virginia Board of Health voted Thursday in a vote of 12-1 to uphold new common sense regulations on first trimester abortion facilities in the Commonwealth.
"These regulations will go a long way to reigning in unscrupulous abortionists in Virginia," said Olivia L. Gans, President of VSHL. "Abortion always ends the life of an unborn child and places the mother of that baby at great risk of future health problems. We are hopeful that more protective measures for both mother and child will be passed in the near future." Over 1100 public comment-mails were received by the Board of Health, of which 646 were in support of the proposed emergency regulations that had been called for by the Virginia General Assembly and Pro-life Governor Bob McDonnell. Your voice was heard!
These approved emergency regulations will now go to the Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, the Department of Planning and Budget, the Department of Planning and Budget, the Secretary of Health and Human Resources, and the Governor for final review. The regulations will go into effect January 1, 2012 for one year and the Governor has the option to extend them for an additional six months. After the emergency regulations go into effect the process of creating permanent regulations will commence. | | | | Moving forward
abortion | Q&A with Virginia Society of Human Life president about clinic regulations, women and abortion | by Alicia Constant
Originally published in World Magazine at http://www.worldmag.com/virginia/18262 | | | On Jul. 1, the Virginia Board of Health will start outlining new regulations for abortion clinics passed in the last legislative session. WORLD Virginia spoke with Olivia Gans, president of the Virginia Society for Human Life, about the next step for the pro-life movement in Virginia and how to reach out to women who have had an abortion.
WORLD Virginia: Pro-lifers celebrated the passage of abortion clinic regulations in the last legislative session, but the regulations haven’t been outlined. What kinds of regulations are you hoping for? Gans: Not only is it important to require abortion clinics to alter their physical capacities; it's very important that we have strict regulations about reporting any complications that occur to the women, any violations....The only way to actually follow up on these regulations is to force the clinics to self-report and have officials actively reporting. If that does not take place, [violations] can slip under the wire and we won't know what's going on.
| W: How effective do you think these regulations will be?
Gans: It’s only part of the puzzle.... Pro-lifers need to go into the discussion of the regulations eyes wide open, with a real awareness that Planned Parenthood has proved in other places that they are willing to stay in business. It will not mean that the regulations are unimportant, but they should be seen as a beginning point for a much larger conversation about protecting the unborn child.
W: What is the next challenge Virginia pro-lifers will face?
Gans: Right now, the single most important thing is this fall’s Senate elections. The pro-abortion majority in the Virginia Senate has been primarily holding up all major pro-life legislation for the past six years or more. We have to change the face of the Senate to reflect the pro-life view of the commonwealth of Virginia.
W: What is the Virginia Society for Human Life’s role in all this?
Gans: The VSHL is the nation’s oldest pro-life organization. Our history goes back to 1967, before Roe v. Wade.... During a legislative session, we have a team of 2-3 individuals who are almost daily down at the General Assembly communicating, lobbying, giving our pro-life members information, reaching out to members who might be on the fence and monitoring bills. Things change very quickly in Richmond during the legislative session. We may or may not support every pro-life bill that is put forward because we look at what kind of effort has the greatest chance of success in this session.
W: And I assume in the last session that was the abortion clinic regulations?
Gans: Actually, that was not the initial priority for us. The legislation we’re usually more keenly interested in pursuing very specifically works to protect the unborn child. We’ve started talking to legislators about passing legislation that says no abortion can be performed after a baby can feel pain. Similar legislation has already been passed in Nebraska, Kansas, Alabama and Oklahoma. That’s extraordinarily powerful because we’ve measured that the child can feel pain from 20 weeks. It may be only a matter of time, many scientists believe, until we learn more about the experience of pain for unborn children in the womb at even younger ages.
W: How did you get involved in the pro-life cause?
Gans: Very simply, I am the mother of an aborted child. Soon after I had the abortion, I went through acute post-abortion syndrome reaction. That's very rare. Most women take years before they start to struggle through the emotional difficulties of an abortion. I came to Washington, D.C., after helping to found the first women’s peer-to-peer post-abortion support group, Women Exploited by Abortion. We discovered that the pro-life movement was very compassionate, creating a safe place for us to heal and give voice to our stories. That led me to work at the National Right to Life Committee in 1985, and I’m still working for NRLC as director of another project called American Victims of Abortion. About two and a half years ago, I was asked to run for president of VSHL. The pro-life movement is famous for using all the talents of its members, even those you didn’t know you had!
W: What finally convinced you that a fetus was a human life?
It wasn’t very long after I experienced abortion that I saw the pictures of the unborn child and thought very honestly in my own heart about what had happened. I became very solidly aware that this is not something but someone, my own child, that had died. It was not in the abstract for me. It was very immediate and very intimate.
W: Many people in the pro-life movement consider themselves Christians. What role do your beliefs play in your pro-life view?
The interesting thing about my commitment to the pro-life movement is that I see the issue as the ultimate human rights question. I’ve worked with people who aren’t participating in any Judeo-Christian, or any faith. Yet they’re able to see abortion as a human rights issue. The natural law, the biological reality, is that at the moment of fertilization there is a new, unique human being, separate from their mother or their father. The initiative to have their rights protected under the law, if for no other reason, is to safeguard our rights.
There’s no doubt in my mind I came back to a place of sanity and stability in my life because of the peace that I discovered when I returned to my faith. But it is not essentially why I do what I do, and it might sound shocking to say that. Within the natural law I can see the glory of God, because, actually, that is going to help us draw other people to this truth. I do this because it is right.
W: Having been there, what would you say is the most important thing to do to reach out to women who have had abortions?
Gans: Just listen. You’ve been given a great gift if someone entrusts you, even if they do it angrily, with their life story. As the Christian and pro-life friend or member of the family, you want to make sure you say, “I hope the people that I love know that I love them beyond any sadness that they’ve experienced and that I’m always here just to listen.” Rather than say, “Well, you’ve done something wrong,” first hear my story. You can tell them the truth that abortion is a tragic event that does involve the death of a child, and that you recognize that’s left them with questions. And you can guide people to a post-abortion counseling program, a church, a pastor who has an open heart or a Christian therapist. You can begin to get people closer to the help they’re going to need if you prove you’re willing to hear our pain.
W: Anything else you’d like to add?
Gans: Yes, I’d like to encourage people to go to the National Right to Life website (nrlc.org) and the website for VSHL (vshl.org). It’s important for them to get involved, if only to get on the email list. In Virginia we desperately need more talent, people who are good writers, artists, people who want to learn to be speakers or do computer work. This is probably one of the most exciting things you could ever do because your efforts will be used to promote human life in Virginia.
Copyright © 2011 WORLD Magazine
Articles may not be reproduced without permission
Published June 27, 2011 | | | | Congratulations to Miss Nicole Gibson, Winner of the National Right to Life Committee's Jane B. Thompson's Prolife Oratory Contest! READ MORE
Miss Nicole Gibson, who was previously the first place winner of the Virginia Society for Human Life, Inc., Educational Fund, Alex and Geline Williams Pro-L ife Oratory Contest held in Richmond, Virginia on May 7th, has gone on to win the NRLC Oratory Contest in Jacksonville, Florida. Congratulations, Nicole! Miss Gibson represented Virginia at the Jane B. Thompson Oratory Contest national competition in Jacksonville, Florida June 25th. This contest is held in conjunction with the annual National Right to Life Committee Convention. Founded in 1967, the Virginia Society for Human Life is the oldest state pro-life organization in the nation with chapters throughout the Commonwealth. It is the Virginia state affiliate to the National Right to Life Committee | | | | |
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