SB 484 ensures Virginia women will be given full range of information before abortion

 WASHINGTON – Today, the National Right to Life Committee, the federation of 50 state right-to-life affiliates and more than 3,000 local chapters, applauded Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell and the Virginia state legislature for enactment of SB 484, the ultrasound bill which ensures that women in the Commonwealth are given the full range of information available before undergoing an abortion procedure.  Governor McDonnell signed the bill into law today.

 “We commend Governor McDonnell and the dedicated men and women in the Virginia legislature for seeing this protective legislation enacted into law,” said Carol Tobias, National Right to Life president. “We also applaud the Virginia Society for Human Life for making this law a top priority and their tireless efforts to protect and empower the women of Virginia.”

The new ultrasound law provides mothers an opportunity to view real-time images of their unborn children, and then provides an appropriate waiting period before rushing her through an abortion. The final version of the bill includes language, urged by Governor McDonnell, which clarifies that only an abdominal ultrasound is necessary to meet the requirements of the law.

During the legislative debate, opponents vilified the ultrasound procedure as “invasive,” even though the National Abortion Federation reports that ultrasounds are already in common use by abortionists to determine the gestational age of the unborn child.  However, the ultrasound screen is often hidden from the mother’s view.

“This basic medical information should be provided to women, but because a life-affirming choice takes business away from the abortionist, they will often hide all the facts of abortion and the child’s development from mothers,” observed Mary Spaulding Balch, J.D., National Right to Life director of state legislation. “The outrageous misinformation propagated during the debate on this ultrasound bill exposed the abortion industry’s concern for its financial bottom line at the cost of women’s well-being. The truth is, the abortion industry is afraid to let women simply see the image of their own child.”

WASHINGTON – The National Right to Life Committee (NRLC), the national federation of state right-to-life organizations, said today that it would continue to challenge the Obama Administration’s authority to mandate that virtually all employers pay for services they regard as morally objectionable, both in Congress and through political action.

The U.S. Senate today rejected an initial attempt to prevent the Obama Administration from forcing employers to provide h­­ealth insurance that covers drugs or procedures to which they are morally opposed. By a vote of 51-48, the Senate tabled (killed) an amendment offered by pro-life Senator Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) and strongly supported by NRLC. The text of the Blunt Amendment is taken from an NRLC-endorsed bill, the Respect for Rights of Conscience Act (S. 1467, H.R. 1179). It would amend the Obama health care law (“ObamaCare”) to prevent the use of that law to issue regulatory mandates that violate the religious or moral convictions of those who purchase or provide health insurance.

The Blunt legislation does not affect any federal law other than ObamaCare, nor does it apply to state laws. In addition, the legislation does not allow any insurer to “discriminate against individuals because of their age, disability, or expected length of life.”

The Obama Administration has issued an initial mandate that requires nearly all employers to purchase plans that cover all FDA-approved methods of birth control. NRLC has pointed out that the same authority could be employed by the Administration in the future to order virtually all health plans to cover all abortions.

The focus now shifts to the House, where the same legislation, introduced as H.R. 1179 by Congressman Jeff Fortenberry (R-Ne.), currently has 220 cosponsors (more than half of all House members). In addition, numerous lawsuits have been filed by religiously affiliated employers, challenging the Obama mandate as a violation of constitutional rights and of the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

“National Right to Life will continue to challenge the Obama Administration’s abortion-expansionist agenda on Capitol Hill, and we will encourage millions of like-minded Americans to remember this issue when they cast their ballots in November,” said Carol Tobias, National Right to Life president.

WASHINGTON – Late this afternoon, the Georgia House of Representatives voted 102-65 to pass the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, which protects unborn children capable of feeling pain. The bill will now go to the Georgia Senate for consideration.

“We applaud the Georgia House of Representatives for taking this important step for pain-capable children,” said Mary Spaulding Balch, J.D., director of state legislation for the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC). “The state has a vested interest in protecting unborn children who can feel pain from the violence of abortion.”

The model Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, drafted by the National Right to Life Committee’s state legislation department, protects the life of the unborn child at the point that they are capable of feeling pain except when the mother “has a condition which so complicates her medical condition as to necessitate the abortion of her pregnancy to avert death or to avert serious risk of substantial or irreversible physical impairment of a major bodily function or…it is necessary to preserve the life of an unborn child.” Further documentation and links to the scientific studies can be found at: www.doctorsonfetalpain.com.

The Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, a priority of the National Right to Life Committee, has been passed in five states and is currently being debated across the country. The legislation has also been introduced in Congress with the intent to protect unborn children in the District of Columbia who are able to feel pain during an abortion.

“Medical science has changed over the last forty years,” said Balch “Accordingly, elected officials across the country are looking at new medical advances and recognizing that our laws need to step into the future as we continue to learn more about the development of the unborn child.”