Today, July 1, 2020, pro-life laws that took years to establish in Virginia’s code will be ripped away as the new laws passed in the 2020 General Assembly go into effect. Pro-abortion groups will have much to celebrate, but the babies and mothers of Virginia will be left with no protection from the lies they are told by abortionists and the deadly reality of what abortion does to their children.
The right of Virginia women to be given full information before they get an abortion and the chance to view an ultrasound of their living unborn baby will no longer be required in the Commonwealth. Abortionists will not be required to provide to the mother documents from the Department of Health regarding risks of abortion, fetal development, or her legal rights if she is in danger. She will not be given 24 hours to consider this information and make a-life affirming decision for herself and her child; instead the abortionist can legally keep her in the dark and add to the pressure to abort her baby.
Starting today, nurse practitioners will be allowed to perform abortions. The plan among abortion groups is to be able to do more abortions because many younger doctors do not want to be abortionists. There is a goal of using chemical abortion more and more often even though these methods can lead to heart attack, hemorrhage, and death for the women that take these drugs.
Another portion of the new law removes all clinic regulations as well, proving that the current leadership in the General Assembly are committed to paying back campaign debts to Planned Parenthood.
During the debate in the 2020 General Assembly Senator Jen Kiggans (R- Virginia Beach), who currently practices as a nurse practitioner, passionately decried the change in the law that expands who can perform abortions. She rightly pointed out that allowing non-physician providers to perform abortions opens the door to complications with dreadful repercussions.
Follow LifeNews.com on Instagram for pro-life pictures and videos.
“As these new laws go into effect today, I reaffirm my position against the harmful expansion of abortion access and stand by my statement that they are not in the best interest of women nor women’s health” — Senator Jen Kiggans
In the House of Delegates, Del. Kathy Byron (R- Bedford/Lynchburg) spoke passionately to the recklessness of removing these longstanding, rational laws. She was in the House of Delegates in 2001 when the original Women’s Right to Know law passed, and she was the patron of the Ultrasound law passed in 2012.
“Effectively, the law sacrifices the health, safety, and rights of pregnant women, prioritizing the interests of the abortion industry over those of Virginia women,” she said. “Having sponsored the law that required abortion clinics meet established medical safety standards and the law that guaranteed women the right to see the results of all tests performed on them prior to an abortion, the repeal of these measures is especially disheartening. But, led by a governor who publicly expressed his disregard for life in advocating post-birth abortions, Virginia Democrats have enacted laws that encourage abortions to the detriment of women’s health.” — Delegate Kathy Byron
Follow this link to see the rest of Del. Byron’s statement.
Today we will hear a lot of crowing from Planned Parenthood, NARAL, and the pro-abortion leaders in the General Assembly. In 2019 they announced their plan to strip away all of Virginia’s pro-life laws if they got control of the General Assembly. Now that they have it this is just the first step in their radical agenda.
Next year we know they will attack more of our rational life-saving laws, including the Parental Consent law, but the biggest threat of all is the proposed Constitutional Amendment. This so-called reproductive liberty amendment is nothing more that, an unchecked right to abortion. If they are successful, no pro-life law will ever be passed in Virginia again. Please help VSHL stand up and defend the right to life. Please forward this email to your pro-life friends and family members, and ask that they sign our petition against the Right-to-Abortion Constitutional Amendment.
LifeNews Note: Olivia Gans Turner is the president of Virginia Society for Human Life
