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.

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1. Contact your own Delegate and Senator to ask them to co-Sponsor or publicly support SB 637 and HB 1285.
2. Go to www.vshlpetition.org and sign the petition to the General Assembly
3. 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.