Virginia Senate OKs Choose Life Plates, House Allows Abortion Info for Women
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
February 10, 2009
Richmond, VA (LifeNews.com) — Members of the Virginia state Senate are working long hours to meet tonight’s midnight deadline to complete work on bills introduced there. One of its actions today includes approving an amendment to allow state motorists a chance to purchase Choose Life license plates for their vehicles.
Senator Ken Cuccinelli , a strongly pro-life Republican legislator from Centreville, surprised everyone with a Senate floor amendment that added his “Choose Life” license plate to an “omnibus” license plate bill.
Last week, the Senate Transportation committee defeated his stand-alone bill, SB 801, that would have created the plates to allow state residents to support adoption programs and pregnancy centers.
"Never one to surrender easily, today he successfully amended SB 817 to include his Choose Life plate," Family Foundation president Victoria Cobb told LifeNews.com.
Senators voted 20-19 for the amendment with the plates.
Meanwhile, the House of Delegates approved two pro-life bills designed to help lower the number of abortions in the state by adding information to the Commonwealth’s popular Informed Consent Law giving women information about abortion’s risks and alternatives.
The state house approved HB 2579, patroned by Delegate Kathy Byron, on a 62-36 vote. It would require that women seeking abortion be offered an opportunity to view an ultrasound of their unborn child.
The House also approved HB 2634, patroned by Delegate Ben Cline, on a 64-34 vote. It would add information about the sensitivity to pain of unborn children to informed consent materials.
Finally, "two bills that would expand funding for biotech research were amended on the floor of the House of Delegates with strong amendments that protect Virginians from funding failed and unethical research," Cobb said.
After long debate over several versions of amendments, Delegates John O’Bannon and Sam Nixon successfully placed amendments on these bills that forbid the use of taxpayer funds for the destruction of human embryos or the use of fetal tissue obtained after induced abortions.
Related web sites:
Family Foundation – https://www.familyfoundation.org
Virginia Legislature – https://legis.state.va.us
Virginia Society for Human Life – https://www.vshl.org
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