Thursday, February 23, 2012

Good News From Virginia. Or Fighting Back Matters.



First good news:
A bill that would define life as starting at conception is dead for this year in Virginia.
The Senate voted 24-14 Thursday to send the so-called "personhood" bill back to committee and carry it over to 2013.
Senate Republican Leader Tommy Norment of James City County made the motion to shelve the bill, saying more study is needed.
It will be back, of course. But it was not passed this year because of the resistance.

Second good news, from a few days ago about that resistance:
The Virginia House of Delegates again today decided to put off voting on the Senate's version of a bill to require women seeking an abortion to first undergo medically unnecessary transvaginal ultrasounds. They also let the vote "pass by" yesterday, with a more than a thousand demonstrators lined up in a silent protest outside.
And the outcome:
The committee earlier approved a bill requiring pre-abortion external ultrasound exams. It was amended to eliminate ultrasounds requiring an invasive ultrasound probe.
The external ultrasounds are medically unnecessary, too. But this is still a victory and a direct consequence of people fighting back.