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UPDATE: Senate approves ultrasound abortion mandate

Credit: BOB BROWN/TIMES-DISPATCH

Sen. Janet D. Howell, D-Fairfax, discussed amendments with Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling (center) and Majority Leader Thomas K. Norment, Jr., R-James City.

By: JIM NOLAN | GoDanRiver.com 
Published: February 28, 2012
Updated: February 28, 2012 - 3:34 PM

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3:28 p.m.

The Virginia Senate today passed precedent-setting legislation that would force women to have an ultrasound before having an abortion.

The 21-19 vote on an amended version of House Bill 462, sponsored by Del. Kathy J. Byron, R-Campbell marked a victory for anti-abortion advocates and the conservative wing of the Republican Party, which has been frustrated in recent days with the scuttling of bills aimed at restricting access, funding and length of time a woman may access abortion services.

Senators agreed to an amendment under which a victim of rape or incest who reports the attack would not have to undergo an ultrasound to get an abortion. The amendment means that the measure must go back to the House of Delegates to see if it agrees to the amendment.

Senate Republicans, with the help of two anti-abortion Democrats, held off stiff Democratic opposition and dissent in their own caucus to pass the bill. Democrats proposed a series of amendments that would have made ultrasounds optional or compelled insurance companies or the state to pick up the cost of the procedure. Only one amendment was approved.

A Senate panel had previously amended the measure so that a woman who is seeking an abortion could refuse a trans-vaginal ultrasound.

Sen. John Watkins, R-Powhatan, was the lone Republican to vote against the bill. Two anti-abortion Democrats Sens. Charles J. Colgan of Prince William and Phillip P. Puckett of Russell voted for the bill. Sen. Jill Holtzman Vogel, R-Fauquier who earlier struck her own version of the ultrasound bill, voted for the amended House measure.

 The vote was preceded by passionate floor speeches delivered by Democrats, who said the legislation marked the first time the Virginia legislature has attempted to codify requiring a medical procedure. 

 "Senators, we don't know what we're doing," said Sen. A. Donald McEachin, D-Henrico. "We should leave the practice of medicine to doctors."

 Sen. Janet D. Howell, D-Fairfax, who proposed the series of amendments, said the measure amounted to "state assault."

Sen. L. Louise Lucas, D-Portsmouth, said the blood of women who will die because of back alley abortions rather than be compelled to undergo a mandatory ultrasound will be on the hands of "everyone who would vote for this bill." 

The original form of the ultrasound bill called for every  woman to have an ultrasound before having an abortion. Because most abortions take place during the first trimester, the bill would have required, in most cases, that a vaginal probe be inserted in order to determine the gestational age of the fetus. 

As public opposition to the invasiveness of the procedure mounted, however, Gov. Bob McDonnell, who opposes abortion, proposed amendments to the measure that would only require transabdominal ultrasounds, and make it optional for a woman to have a transvaginal ultrasound.  

Supporters of the bill -- most of them opposed to abortion -- said the bill simply sought to codify the use of updated technology to improve the informed consent procedure used when a woman has an abortion.

 But opponents maintained the measure was not medically necessary, interjected the government into the privacy of the doctor-patient relationship and was a thinly-veiled to discourage women from going through with the procedure. 

Reaction to the widely anticipated vote was swift and passionate.

"Despite the unprecedented public outcry over the past few days, the Virginia Senate has voted to erect new barriers for women seeking their constitutional protected right to terminate a pregnancy," said Jessica Honke of Virginia Planned Parenthood. 

"The General Assembly should get back to discussing jobs and the economy, and stay out of the business of practicing medicine."

Victoria Cobb, president of the Family Foundation of Virginia, said: “We are pleased that the state Senate today finally passed an ultrasound bill that provides medically accurate information through modern technology to a woman seeking an abortion."

And Cobb, whose husband, Matt is a deputy secretary of Health in the McDonnell administration, issued a political warning of sorts to lawmakers who vacillated in their support of the measures.

"Pro-life Virginians have long memories, and they will remember who stood firm during this debate.”

Women's-rights advocates were also taking names.

"Women will hold them accountable for this government overreach into their private decisions and their constitutional rights," said Tarina Keene of NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia. 

"Women should have the option of having an ultrasound, not forced to undergo a completely unnecessary procedure prescribed by politicians,” said Keene.

Sen. Richard L. Saslaw, D-Fairfax, used the occasion to call out Republicans who campaigned on a platform of keeping government out of the lives of people, but voted to mandate a medical procedure.

"You might try voting the way you're campaigning," he said.

(This has been a breaking news update. Check back for more details as they become available. An earlier update is posted below. Read more in tomorrow's Richmond Times-Dispatch.)

The Senate Finance Committee this morning voted to defeat a bill that would have banned Medicaid funding for indigent women with severely deformed fetuses who seek abortions.

Voting 10-5, the panel defeated House Bill 62, sponsored by Del. Mark Cole, R-Spotsylvania, that would have eliminated state funding for low-income women who have learned that their fetuses have gross, incapacitating and perhaps mortal deformities.

Cole says that the bill is essentially a state version of the Hyde Amendment -- a legislative provision named for former Rep. Henry Hyde of Illinois -- that bars the use of certain federal funds to pay for abortions.

Democrats argue against the measure for the impact it could have on women with no financial means.

The bill would have stripped funding for abortions for low-income women who have fetuses with "gross, totally incapacitating physical deformity or mental deficiency."

Reaction to the defeat of the bill among senators reflected concerns over both the access to abortion services for poor women in distress and the potential skyrocketing costs of caring for profoundly ill infants who would be born if those women could not afford to terminate their pregancies.

Last year the state spent roughly $3,000 to fund 10 procedures.  

 "The issue in Finance was in regard to the financial implications," said Sen. John Watkins, R-Powhatan. "Obviously most folks felt like it wasn't worth deleting that segment of the law that we've had for the last 30 years.

 "Money always has an effect," added Watkins, who said taxpayers, through Medicaid, would likely have to assume the costs of caring for any incapacitated children who survive birth and that cost "could be extreme."

Sen. Ralph S. Northam, D-Norfolk, a physician, opposed the bill in the Senate Education and Health Committee but amended it to give priority in Medicaid care to the incapacitated children who would be born as a result of denying poor women the funding to terminate their pregnancies.

 "I think it's a step in the right direction," said Northam. "It was one of the cruelest and most inhumane pieces of legislation to come along since I've been here. To tell a pregnant woman and her husband that they must carry a baby that's non-viable to term, is just cruel."

Finance Committee member Sen. Louise L. Lucas, D-Portsmouth, said it was "cruel to even broach the issue in the first place."

Sen. Charles J. Colgan, D-Prince William, was the lone Democrat to support funding the measure, but was realistic about the defeat in the committee.

"The vote wasn't even close," he said. "I voted to fund it, but you can't win them all. I don't think it was a great tragedy like so many of them are," added Colgan, who traditionally supports nearly all measures seeking to limit or restrict abortion.  "I didn't think this one was quite that bad."

 Also today, the full state Senate is expected to take up House Bill 462, sponsored by Del. Kathy J. Byron, R-Campbell, which would require a woman to have an ultrasound before she could get an abortion. The legislation has been amended, so that the woman could refuse a trans-vaginal procedure.

(This has been a breaking news update. Check back for more details as they become available.)