Every now and then I have the opportunity to enlighten a fellow Virginian to the shenanigans that go on in Richmond. I tell them the story of Delegate Cosgrove and how he actually attempted to make it punishable as a Class 1 Misdemeanor for any woman to not report her miscarriage within 12 hours. There's also Delegate Marshall's 2004 bill prohibiting Virginia's colleges and universities from making available the morning after pill. In 2005, Marshall introduced a bill seeking to bar unmarried women from becoming pregnant by means other than sexual intercourse. I could go on but I think you catch my point here. This stuff is nuts! This explains why some legislators have had to introduce bills that try to carve out at least some kind of line separating birth control and abortion. For instance, in 2007, Del. Kris Amundson introduced HB2221 which states that "Birth control means contraceptive methods that are approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Birth control shall not be considered abortion." It failed.
In 2005, Sen. Mary Margaret Whipple and Del. Amundsen introduced in their respective houses SB456 and HB2855. These bills did nothing other than say that contraception did not constitute abortion. The bills "[p]rovide(s) that contraception is not subject to or governed by the abortion law set forth in Title 18.2. 'Contraception' is defined, for all purposes, as the use of any process, device, or method to prevent pregnancy, including steroidal, chemical, physical or barrier, natural or permanent methods for preventing the union of an ovum with the spermatozoon or the subsequent implantation of the fertilized ovum in the uterus." It too failed, thanks to Sen. Jeanmarie Devolites-Davis, who carried water for her cowardly all male GOPper colleagues by suggesting an amendment that put a period after the word "pregnancy" and struck the rest. The bill turned into something that was instead quite dangerous and its patron, Mary Margaret, had to withdraw it.
The words following "pregnancy" is what scares the f*ck out of GOPpers. It's language that separates the men from the boys, sifts the wheat from the shaft, etc., etc. Because for them it's like choosing between a rock and a hard place. For on the one hand, they have their "sanctity of life" pledge to pro-lifers doing a chock hold on them. And on the other hand, they have the thousands and thousands of constituents who use birth control every day of their lives and the medical definition of pregnancy as adopted by the American Medical Association and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. They wiggle and dance, get angry like former Sen. Bill Mims did in our meetings with him, or dodge the whole thing like former Delegate Dick Black did by not voting. (Hard to believe, Dick Black did not vote on an abortion bill. He knew we would completely hang him on it and he had a tough re-election facing him! But thanks anyway, Del. Amundson. It was a nice try.)
Anyway, this year there was a bill introduced that in many ways is the ultimate "pregnancy test". It was HB 2797 which "[p]rovides that 'the right to enjoyment of life' guaranteed by the Constitution of Virginia is vested in each born and preborn human being from the moment of fertilization." Had this bill prevailed, the pill, the patch, the morning after pill (which is high dosage regular birth control pills), and IUDs would have been outlawed. It would have also outlawed breastfeeding because each and every fertilized egg would be guaranteed "the right to enjoyment of life". Birth control works primarily to prevent the fertilization of eggs, but there is a small chance that an egg does get fertilized. How birth control gains it's 99.999% bonafides is by also creating an environment in a woman's uterus that says "Nope, not implanting on me. See ya' later." Breastfeeding cause the uterus to say the same thing but in a natural way. God is brilliant that way.
So, who do we have voting in favor of basically outlawing birth control? Why it's none other than ol' Delegate "Doc" Welch. But what's really interesting is who voted against this nonsense. Why it's none other than GOPper Delegate Terrie Suit! Now let's look again at the nonsense bills mentioned in the first paragraph. HB1414 was one making it to a full House vote. It's the one banning the morning after pill from college campuses. Suit again votes "No". Welch again votes "Yes". (TERRIE SUIT GETS IT!!! Birth control prevents abortion! I'm doing a little "Go Terrie dance as I write this.") It passes the House and lands luckily in Potts' Education and Health committee where it thankfully dies the usual death.
So obviously with his voting record (and I'm sure there's more votes than what I have explored here), Welch has definitely carved out his position as being one opposing the birth control that hundreds of his constituents use every day. We need to call him out on that, but we need to do so very carefully. He will dodge and dance just like Jeanmarie and her boy toys in the Senate. His will be the patented response delivered over and over again by his GOPper friends to include Chris Stolle. "I believe in the sanctity of life", he will say. "God bless America, my momma and apple pie." End of story. And he gets away with that as voters and candidates tend to recoil from even the mention of the word "abortion". But this isn't about abortion. It's about birth control. Nothing anyone should get squeamish about.
So how do we frame the question so as to reveal the truth? (And it's a question that we also need to pose to Nick "FemiNazi" Rerras, Tricia "get gov't out of public education" Stall, and Chris Stolle, BTW.) We need to then be out there with it screaming from every rooftop in Virginia Beach... "John Welch wants to outlaw birth control!"
I never can remember how to do an immbedded link so here is a link to his website. Toss a few bucks his way. This guy has good popular support. I think we can pick this one up.