If a doctor or health care provider counsels a patient who is suicidal, sick with cancer or disease, or if the developing child has a fatal birth defect, there is no exception. They are guilty of a crime:

§ 18.2-B. Encouraging procuring of abortion by advertisement, etc.  If any person, by publication, lecture, advertisement, or by the sale or circulation of any publication, or in any other manner, encourages or prompts the procuring of abortion or miscarriage, he shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.

For the procedure, there is an exception, but a ten-year penalty will scare off many doctors even if they are attempting to save a life. And if they can't get counseled, how will they get the procedure?

If you think the State, and the same dittoheads that brought you George Bush for president, should even have a say on an individual's medical care, I caution you to read the case of my ill next-door neighbor, Angela Carter.  GWU Hospital, with a judge's approval, overruled her decision with her husband and doctor to carry her baby two more weeks till it was viable. They said the potential life she carried had a better chance with an immediate cesarean, and said Angie's life was not worth as much as the potential life, anyway, since she was ill. The cesarean kiled Mother and Baby. She "won" on appeal, taken by the ACLU, who fought for her right to continue her pregnancy.

I did some fundraising for the campaign that repealed the abortion ban in South Dakota, I thought that would have sent a message nationwide, apperantly, I was wrong.

Please take action on this, we can't let this pass in Virginia.

Can we not take this guy out in 07?

Bruce. Roemmelt.

Yes, totally, he should be next.

Well, we might as well face the fact that the culture wars are going to be fought out right here in Virginia.

I tend to call these things the ghosts of Oxen Hill. I live near the Ox Hill battle field where over one thousand Confederate and Union soldiers lost their lives in a battle fought in the midst of a huge thunderstorm. In fact, if the truth be told, I live ON part of Ox Hill. Maybe its the ghosts that live here who whisper in my ears at night while I sleep and keep me in the battle of Virginia politics. I'm afraid the battle of Ox Hill is over, but the storm still rages and we are still getting soaked. The abortion battle is less about abortion than about turning the clock back to the time where everyone knew his or her place and white guys ruled. Its really a symbolic battle about who is really in control.

This bill will have support from some powerful conservative politicos here in VA: Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, et al. Thay could make it a tough fight.

Waiting for the massacree.....

Has Marshall introduced any bills that relate to subjects other than sex or reproduction?

introducing all sorts of bills.  Check out Waldo's new site and select Marshall http://www.richmonds...

One that caught my eye was that he wants a study that will investigate putting light rail along the W&OD trail!!! 

WTF? 

First off, Metro is already planning on building a line to Dulles (I'm not sure I agree with that plan, but that's a completely different topic) that would overlap with a good chunk of Bob's planned route.

Second, in many sections, especially the closer in parts, there isn't room for the trail and a rail.  The bill claims that the two can co-exist.  Ha.  Not a chance.  Not without doing some serious eminent domain land grabs.

Plus he seems to think that it's a good idea because there are existing stations that could be used.  Hahahaha.  And I know of at least two existing railcars (cabooses to be exact) along the trail that he could also use.

I sure don't want my tax dollars going toward such a waste of a study.

Bob ought to stick to what he does best: poking into citizens private lives.  Er, on second thought, let's just make sure Bruce wins this year.

..And this, er, guy was behind me in line.  I didn't know who he was, but from his converstation about Stem Cell research he was having with another person I deduced that he was some politician or lawyer or whatever.  I had no idea who he was.

My gosh, he will be the next person I help try to get voted out.

Who's going to run against this guy? I have my checkbook ready.

Bruce Roemmelt is the man.

as far as I'm aware.  But he has said many times that he intends to run, so I assume he's running...

A similar bill is being pushed here too. The chamber was filled is so-called  "pro-lifers" all day yesterday. There was a blogger from Blog for Democracy there. This is what Bernita posted about the hearing on HB-1

for the common good?

will wake up.  I sent the action letter, not that Michele McQuigg would listen, she's to busy taking away women's rights.

There is nothing "pre-Roe" about the meddlesome persecution of individuals that's transpiring today.  In Kansas, files collected on those receiving abortions in one clinic, were not secured and an unknown number of copies were made.  Is the private life of every woman to be photocopied into the public domain?  Oh, yeh, despite the false security given by HIPPA, there is no medical privacy.

I lived pre-Roe.  And, as oppressive as the law could be back then, it was nowhere as intrusive as the run-away meddling that Bob Marshall or Kansas pols conduct. Bob Marshall meddles in specific cases (remember the end-of-life intrustion in Virginia not that many years ago)?  You can't trust politicians who get into our bedrooms and personal medical lives.

In addition to the fact that such a ban is just plain wrong and unconstitutional, there are too many unintended consequences to mention for the Marsall effort.  For example, back then, when a woman had a miscarriage, she wasn't subject to police investigation.  The agressive way in which Marshall tries to criminalize abortion will ultimately lead to the persecution of the millions of women who have lost a pregnancy through now fault of their own.  Of course, Marshall will likely end up making it the woman's fault.  Did she eat right?  Did she smoke?  Did she exercise (or not exercise) the right amount?  Making every efort to stay healthy during pregnancy is vitally important.  But criminalizing women the way some women in our country have been over how they lead their lives should be beyond the bounds of legislators.  Marshall is so ignorant that he probably doesn't even know 1/5 of pregnanies end in miscarriage (it was 1/4 in the 1960s). 

I have written elsewhere of the phony emptiness of those like Marshall's.  When I had a miscarriage in the 70s, I was forced to remain in a religious hospital overnight in a suite with three woman who had had live births.  "Get over it," was the nurse's order, as if a medical fluke was my fault.  No one sent a card.  No one acted as if I had lost something I grieved over.  I was heartbroken and no one gave a damn.  And yet some of the very same callous people purport to weep over a first trimester fetus lost to abortion.  It's just not believable.  Pols such as Marshall want something.  It is all about control.  It's as if Marshall is saying,"Thou shalt not interfere with what the man has wrought."

And the term "spontaneous abortion," means that unfortunate labeling sets up millions of women as targets of Side-Show Bob Marshall's run-away invasion ofo privacy. 

Are you incensed by this legislation? We're organizing Pro-Choice Lobby Day and need you there if you oppose thie legislation. Here is some information:

The Virginia General Assembly is in session and the anti-choice bills are be piling up…including an ABORTION BAN introduced by Del. Bob Marshall. Additionally we are anticipating threats to Emergency Contraception, sex education, and more.

ACTION: We need you and every Pro-Choice supporter you know to attend Pro-Choice Lobby Day on Thursday, January 25th! We are working hard to make this the biggest Pro-Choice Lobby Day the Capitol has ever seen! 

• BE COUNTED! Let us know you will be there. If you plan to attend lobby day, please sign up at http://www.ppaction....

CIRCULATE THIS information TO YOUR FRIENDS, FAMILY, CLASSMATES, & COLLEAGUES.

Background

In addition to other threats to reproductive rights, women's access to basic birth control is under attack in Virginia. Opponents of reproductive rights are trying to blur the lines between contraception and abortion in order to restrict such access, just as they have succeeded in doing with abortion services. In past years their recent legislative initiatives have been: a bill that would permit pharmacists to refuse to dispense basic birth control pills and emergency contraception (EC) and prohibiting student health centers and colleges and universities from providing emergency contraception. They have even attempted to require parental consent and a waiting period before minors could access EC, even though such delays would prevent EC from being effective. Women's access to basic birth control is under attack in Virginia and must be protected.  You can also visit www.ppav.org for more information.

Virginia legislators need to PUT PREVENTION FIRST!