This week, a Virginia legislator introduced a bill whose summary states it “removes the requirement that a pregnant minor seeking an abortion obtain either parental consent or judicial authorization.”
Sen. Dick Saslaw of Fairfax County, Virginia, who was elected by Virginia Senate Democrats to be their next majority leader, as Richmond.com reports, introduced Senate Bill 21, which also states:
The bill removes the requirement that a pregnant woman seeking to obtain an abortion undergo a fetal transabdominal ultrasound prior to obtaining an abortion at least 24 hours prior to obtaining an abortion, or at least two hours prior to obtaining an abortion if the pregnant woman lives at least 100 miles from the facility where the abortion is to be performed. The bill also removes language classifying facilities that perform five or more first-trimester abortions per month as hospitals for the purpose of complying with regulations establishing minimum standards for hospitals.
Democrat legislators in Virginia seem determined to support abortion providers. As National Review reported in late October:
Documents uncovered from earlier this year show that Virginia governor Ralph Northam obtained talking points on abortion policy from both Planned Parenthood and NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia. The documents were released today by Judicial Watch, which filed requests in February under the Virginia Freedom of Information Act, seeking records of communication between Northam’s staff related to abortion or the abortion bill sponsored earlier this year by state representative Kathy Tran. The group also requested records of communication between Northam’s staff and Planned Parenthood or the abortion-advocacy PAC EMILY’s List.
Northam infamously declared in a January radio interview: “If a mother is in labor, I can tell you exactly what would happen. The infant would be delivered. The infant would be kept comfortable. The infant would be resuscitated, if that’s what the mother and the family desired, and then a discussion would ensue between the physicians and the mother.”
As The Daily Wire reported last January, Virginia Democratic Delegate Kathy Tran proposed legislation that would allow abortions up until the moment of birth. The Repeal Act, introduced as HB2491, would eliminate all existing restrictions on abortion in the state of Virginia. A summary of the bill stated:
Eliminates the requirement that an abortion in the second trimester of pregnancy and prior to the third trimester be performed in a hospital. The bill eliminates all the procedures and processes, including the performance of an ultrasound, required to effect a woman’s informed written consent to the performance of an abortion; however, the bill does not change the requirement that a woman’s informed written consent be first obtained.
The bill eliminates the requirement that two other physicians certify that a third trimester abortion is necessary to prevent the woman’s death or impairment of her mental or physical health, as well as the need to find that any such impairment to the woman’s health would be substantial and irremediable. The bill also removes language classifying facilities that perform five or more first-trimester abortions per month as hospitals for the purpose of complying with regulations establishing minimum standards for hospitals.