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At one end of the state Capitol this afternoon, the House of Delegates debated Gov. Bob McDonnell’s proposed changes to a Senate bill requiring women seeking abortions to submit to an ultrasound procedure that could be invasive.

At the other end of the building, even as the debate was unfolding in the House, the bill’s sponsor said she no longer wanted to be part of the divisive legislation.

The slow-moving controversy that has hovered over the 2012 General Assembly session exploded in a series of rapid-fire events this afternoon and the political fallout may last long after lawmakers go home next month.

After weeks of heated debate, a President’s Day protest on Capitol Square, and unflattering attention from the national media and late night comedy shows, McDonnell tried to defuse the controversy today.  McDonnell proposed changes to Senate Bill 484 “to explicitly state that no woman in Virginia will have to undergo a transvaginal ultrasound involuntarily.”

“Mandating an invasive procedure in order to give informed consent is not a proper role for the state,” McDonnell said in a statement. “No person should be directed to undergo an invasive procedure by the state, without their consent, as a precondition to another medical procedure.”

The House approved the rewritten version of the bill, voting largely along party lines. But before the floor debate ended, Republican Sen. Jill Holtzman Vogel of Fauquier County rose to tell her Senate colleagues that she will ask them to strike the bill when it comes to them.

“There are moments when you are a legislator that you have to stop and have a moment of real conscience,” Vogel said. “And I sort of had that moment this morning considering the outcome and the fate of this bill.”

“I would very much like to see us pass a good, solid informed consent bill that protects women and gives women the information that they deserve,” Vogel said. “But I also am not ashamed to stand up in front of my colleagues – and some I know who will be very upset with me for doing this – and admit if I don’t know the answer and if I don’t have all the answers. There’s been a lot of information and a lot of substance and a lot of smart people who have come to me in medicine, on both sides, and I have to stand before you and tell you that I’m not sure that I do have the answers.”

Vogel said after the Senate adjourned that she based her decision on conflicting information she was getting from physicians and others on both sides of the issue.

“Given the conflicting information I was getting from physicians and from all these folks – it all just happened,” Vogel said. “This was not part of the discussion at all when I put the bill in.”

“I have lots of sensitivity to all those issues,” Vogel explained. “It just is a matter of where I am. I didn’t believe I could continue to carry the bill with all the current questions out there.”

Vogel said House bill (HB 462) sponsored by Del. Kathy Byron, R-Campbell County, “might be fixable.” The Senate Education and Health Committee is scheduled to act on the bill Thursday morning.

“That’s the great thing,” Vogel said. “I understand now the governor has suggestions to make changes and hopefully those will make it better.”

Vogel said the original intent of her bill was to provide more health information for women.

“I think the underlying mission, which is giving women the information, is really, really important,” she said.

“It was never my intention to bring a bill that raised as many questions as this bill raises when it comes to women,” said Vogel. “I mean, I’m a woman. I understand it’s important and there are sensitivities here.”

– Michael Sluss