Gov. Glenn Younkin is the only barricade left to extremist legislation legalizing human killing in Virginia after weeks of contentious debate over legislation encompassing abortion and physician-assisted suicide.
In an otherwise cooperative, bipartisan session, the Democrat majority aggressively stamped out proposed pro-life laws. The majority also resurrected a radical abortion amendment to the Virginia Constitution in week one, advanced physician-assisted suicide, and introduced legislation that would essentially remove liability from abortionists and gender-altering surgeons.
Since the overturning of Roe v. Wade, the Democrat Party has championed radical anti-life legislation across the country. In seven states plus the District of Columbia, abortion is now unrestricted until birth. Legislators in 18 states have installed special protections for abortion providers, encouraging abortion tourism across state lines. State constitutions are being amended to enshrine abortion at an unparalleled rate in blue states. In his campaign speech last week, Democratic President Joe Biden promised “to take back ‘progress’ and restore Roe v. Wade as the law of the land.”
“This was not a year when any pro-life bill would receive a fair hearing in Virginia,” said Olivia Gans-Turner, president of Virginia Society for Human Life. “The handful of bills introduced that would have offered reasonable protection to babies who survived an abortion, or would have prevented abortion based on sex or race, were defeated callously and quickly.”
After years of divided chambers, Democrats hold a majority in the House and the Senate following the 2023 election cycle.
“The 2024 General Assembly was a clear example of the fact that elections have consequences,” Turner said. “Having gained a slim majority in both chambers, the new pro-abortion leadership showed their hand early on.”
Abortion Until Birth
The very first bill introduced was an amendment to the Virginia Constitution to enshrine abortion through all nine months of pregnancy, effectively eliminating pro-life laws in the state. The amendment debate was pushed to 2025, but highlights the radical pursuit of unregulated, unlimited killing of the unborn by the legislature’s current majority.
“What it really comes down to is just trying to get everyone honest on what they really believe on this issue,” said Del. Nick Freitas, R-Culpeper. “I’m repeatedly told that all the left wants is just reasonable consideration for women’s reproductive health.”
Democrats continue to market their intentions, but “we don’t legislate intentions,” Frietas said. “I’d like people to actually know what the Democrats want. Every single Democrat in the House would vote yes on [the abortion amendment] if they could today. When it comes to policy, they want abortion up until birth with no exceptions and they want it taxpayer subsidized…That is what the constitutional amendment will do next year.”
Democrats succeeded in passing several bills to protect abortionists from malpractice liabilities. The bills would prevent the state Board of Medicine from taking action against an abortionist who breaks these laws.
“The effect will be to create a special class of treatment to abortionists that no other area of medical activity is afforded,” Turner said. These bills were combined and passed the General Assembly handily on party lines and now await the governor’s action. Turner expects Youngkin to veto the legislation by the April deadline. The assembly then has the opportunity to overturn the governor’s veto with a two-thirds majority vote.
Let Babies Born Alive Die on the Table
Although 60 percent of Americans still strongly oppose the use of tax funds to pay for most abortions, a bill to permanently remove Virginia taxpayers’ obligation to pay for abortions beyond what is required in the federal Hyde Amendment was rejected in the House of Delegates, where pro-abortion Democrats attempted to make a mockery of the patron’s bill, Turner said.
“This seems to be the one industry Democrats don’t want to regulate,” Freitas said.
Since 2020 Freitas has sponsored a Born Alive Act that would require an abortionist to provide reasonable medical care to an infant who survives an abortion. Last year the act passed the Republican-controlled House, but was denied a hearing by the Democrat-majority Senate. This year the legislation was left to die in a Senate subcommittee.
Although rare, documented cases of abortion survival plague the industry. In compelling testimony, Robin Sertell, a saline abortion survivor, spoke in favor of Freitas’s bill. Abortion lobbyists called the woman’s detailed history false, revealing how “irrelevant” they consider survivors, Freitas said.
“To protect women’s choices is not really what they want,” Freitas said. “No matter where you find yourself on the spectrum, from consecration to the Born Alive Act, every Democrat, at least in the House, will not put any restrictions on abortion to birth and will put in no reasonable restrictions if a baby needs help after birth.”
Allowing Doctors to Kill the Sick
The biggest win for the pro-life lobby this session was a vote by lawmakers to delay Senate Bill 280, which would legalize physician-assisted suicide, Turner said. The bill will now be heard in the 2025 session.
The companion bill sponsored by Del. Patrick Hope, D-Arlington, died in the House. The legislation, reintroduced by Sen. Ghazala Hashmi, D-Chesterfield, would remove civil and criminal liability from providers involved in an assisted suicide. In a statement Feb. 5, Virginia’s Catholic bishops called voters to voice their opposition to assisted suicide, saying legalizing it “would place the lives of people with disabilities, people with mental illnesses, the elderly, and those unable to afford healthcare – among others – at heightened risk of deadly harm.”
The bill hinges on a six-month prognosis, but stories of people living six years or more with terminal illness are prolific, said Del. Phil Scott, R-Spotsylvania. Scott championed a bill last year designating March as Trisomy Awareness Month.
“Doctors do not always get it right,” Scott said. “They don’t account for a few things. They don’t account for God. They do not account for the love of family and they do not account for the will of the individual.”
Doctor-facilitated suicide legislation will return next year, Turner said, as Democrats only need a few more votes to pass it into law.
Selling Women’s Bodies
Democrats passed another bill to allow women to accept money to gestate other people’s babies in their wombs, but the governor vetoed it and seven other bills last Friday. In his explanation for vetoing the bill, Youngkin noted the “serious concerns that arise when we allow the increased commercialization and profit-driven commodification of surrogacy.”
“Commercial surrogacy brokers, driven primarily by financial gain, may divert attention from the successful pregnancy, the welfare of the child, and the interests of both the intended parents and the surrogate,” he said.
Youngkin noted that human traffickers exploit surrogacy laws. Although legal representation of both parties in a surrogacy agreement is required, the contract details can be “intricate…which will necessitate negotiating with well-resourced, experienced, and professional brokers, leaving surrogates vulnerable to potential abuses.”
Democrats also killed Scott’s bill to prohibit abortion based on sex or ethnicity, and House Bill 1202, which would have defined as manslaughter the accidental killing of a baby inside his mother’s womb, such as in domestic abuse.
“Democrats are interested in protecting [abortion], with no legal ramifications,” Scott said. “Health care is designed to prolong life, period. That’s what health care is. Abortion is not health care. It ends a life.”
This article has been corrected since publication.
