Senate Bills SB279 and SB484 add an ultrasound requirement prior to an abortion to Virginia's informed consent laws. Currently, a woman is offered a pamphlet with generic pictures showing gestational age and development. An ultrasound, however, would offer a mother information specific to her child, should she choose to view the images. Furthermore, an ultrasound provides for a "safer" abortion in that the gestational age of the child is known, not guessed, decreasing the medical risks to the mother. The Senate Education and Health committee will vote on this bill this week.
A recent Mason-Dixon poll revealed that this proposal is supported by 54% of Virginia voters and perhaps most notably, 57% of women in Virginia. Adding to the widespread support of this measure, nearly 20 states have passed some version of this commonsense legislation in the past decade. For more information on this proposal, visit the Virginia Family Foundation at www.vafamilyfoundation.org.
Legislation is also now pending in the Virginia General Assembly that would make it illegal to abort an unborn child that is capable of feeling pain. To learn more about the facts regarding unborn children and their experience during abortion see http://www.nrlc.org/abortion/Fetal_Pain/FetalPain091604.pdf). The Senate bill, SB 637, and the House version, HB 1285, seem to already have garnered support on both sides of the aisle because of its implications for both women and their children.
For more information on this proposal visit The Virginia Society for Human Life at www.vshl.org. 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. If passed, Virginia will be the sixth state to pass this life saving law.
I'm part of that 57% of women in VA who feel that an ultrasound requirement helps a woman make a fully informed decision. Thank you for keeping up-to-date on these issues!
ReplyDeleteIt only makes sense. If women want to be considered equal and capable of making decisions, then we need to be willing to be completely informed about a decision that so impacts our emotional and physical health.
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