2012.02.08
House panel shelves bill restricting later-term abortions
A House of Delegates subcommittee today quietly ended the debate over legislation that would ban most abortions after 20 weeks gestation, agreeing to carry the bill over until next year.
Del. Richard Anderson, R-Prince William County, asked a House Courts of Justice subcommittee to carry over the bill (HB 1285), citing concerns raised by legislative staffers about the measure’s constitutionality. An identical Senate bill died last week on a tie vote in the Senate Education and Health Committee, with Republican Harry Blevins of Chesapeake abstaining.
The proposed legislation prohibits an abortion after 20 weeks unless it is needed to avert a woman’s death or “serious risk of substantial and irreversible physical impairment of a major bodily function.” An abortion performed in violation of the law would be prosecuted as a felony.
Abortion rights advocates were relieved by the House subcommittee’s action, which effectively ends debate on the issue for this year.
“These bills, if passed, would have posed a serious threat to women’s health by not taking into account individual circumstances and banning abortions at 20 weeks gestation,” said Tarina Keene, executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia. “The sponsors of these bills want to take medicine out of the hands of doctors and decisions out of the hands of women and their families. Politicians should not interfere in these deeply personal, private medical decisions.”
- Michael Sluss
