VA Senate Education and Health Committee Defeats Harmful So-called “Born Alive” and Biased Counseling Bills

From Planned Parenthood Advocates of Virginia:

Senate Education and Health Committee Defeats Harmful So-called “Born Alive” and Biased Counseling Bills

Richmond, Va – Today, Delegate Nick Freitas’ so-called “born-alive” bill (HB1795) and Delegate Karen Greenhalgh’s biased counseling bill (HB2270) were defeated by a vote of 9-6 and 10-5 respectively in the Senate Education and Health Committee. So-called “born-alive” bills like HB1795 are simply vehicles for anti-abortion politicians to push misinformation, stoke fear, and bully patients and providers — all toward the ultimate goal of banning abortion. HB2270 would have interfered in the patient-provider relationship by reinstating medically unnecessary, biased counseling for abortion patients, which was repealed by the Virginia General Assembly in 2020. Both of these bills are completely unnecessary, as medical professionals are already obligated to provide appropriate medical care and medically accurate information to their patients.

With the defeat of these two bills, the Senate Education and Health Committee has rejected every single anti-abortion bill that has come before it this legislative session.

Statement by Jamie Lockhart, Executive Director of Planned Parenthood Advocates of Virginia:

“The uniting theme of these anti-abortion bills is the intent to stigmatize abortion and give politicians power over patients’ personal medical decisions. Delegate Freitas and Delegate Greenhalgh’s bills are nothing more than political theater and not how constituents want their elected leaders to spend their time in office. Instead of respecting every person’s autonomy and acknowledging the complexities of medical care, anti-abortion politicians again resorted to inflammatory rhetoric to distract from their unpopular agenda – to push essential health care out of reach and punish patients and their medical providers.

Planned Parenthood Advocates of Virginia thanks the legislative champions on the Senate Education and Health Committee who stood up for Virginians’ health and rights and saw through these extreme, unnecessary proposals, sending them to the trash along with the abortion bans they previously defeated. ”