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RICHMOND, Virginia, January 10, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) – A Virginia Democrat has introduced a resolution to enshrine “the individual right to personal reproductive autonomy” in the commonwealth’s Constitution, as well as a bill to repeal several moderately pro-life laws.

The Democrat-controlled legislature is also pushing forward the so-called Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), which would enshrine abortion and the elimination of sex distinctions into the U.S. Constitution. Legal experts – and now the U.S. Department of Justice – say votes decades ago to ratify the failed 1972 constitutional amendment have expired, but leftists are attempting to revive it anyway.

Virginia Senate Majority Leader Richard Saslaw introduced both pro-abortion measures and resurrected the ERA. 

Senate Joint Resolution 2 would add to Virginia’s Constitution:

That an individual's right to personal reproductive autonomy is central to the enjoyment of life and liberty and shall not be denied or infringed upon unless justified by a compelling interest of the Commonwealth and achieved by the least restrictive means.

Senate Bill 21, meanwhile, would treat minors as adults for purposes of consenting to “(m)edical or health services related to abortion, birth control, pregnancy or family planning except for the purposes of sexual sterilization.”  

It would strike from the law a requirement that abortionists make a “statement of the probable gestational age of the fetus at the time the abortion is to be performed and that fetal ultrasound imaging … be performed prior to the abortion to confirm the gestational age.” 

Committing an abortion without doing an ultrasound to determine the age of the child being killed can put the mother (in addition to the child being aborted) at risk. For example, chemical abortions – “the abortion pill” – are only used to kill preborn babies about 10 weeks and younger, so dispensing them to a woman much farther along in pregnancy might lead to serious complications and/or an incomplete abortion. And if an abortionist thought he was surgically aborting a 15-week-old child and discovered mid-abortion the baby was actually 19 or 20 weeks, it’s possible he’d be unable to remove all of the pieces of the dismembered human.

Ultrasounds are standard practice to confirm gestational age anyway, regardless of whether a pregnant woman is undergoing an abortion. They are also used to detect whether a pregnancy is ectopic.

Additionally, SB 21 would remove from state law language mandating that abortion facilities meet the same health and safety standards as hospitals. A lack of health and safety regulations and proper government oversight are what have allowed countless abortionists, in Virginia and other states, to operate filthy facilities that harm women.

Another pro-abortion bill, SB 68, would scrap a law requiring women be given the chance to see their baby’s ultrasound and hear his heartbeat before aborting.

LGBT bill would ‘push radical sexual orientation and gender identity policies’ in schools

Democrats are also moving ahead with SB 868, which would make homosexuality and transgenderism protected classes. 

SB 161 would require the Department of Education to create model policies on transgenderism in public schools. 

“This bill would mandate local school divisions to develop policies on how schools must handle situations that involve students of one biological sex who identify as the opposite sex, including i) the use of bathrooms and locker rooms, ii) the use of pronouns when identifying students, and iii) allowing biological males to participate in all-female sports teams,” warned Victoria Cobb, president of the Family Foundation of Virginia, in an email to supporters. “SB 161 would push radical sexual orientation and gender identity policies onto parents and their children that intrude on their personal convictions.” 

“These proposed policies are like all of the nondiscrimination policies that have been approved by numerous school boards in Virginia which allow boys to use female locker rooms or … bathrooms, and possibly even share the same hotel room for school sponsored events.”

Cobb recalled the case of Peter Vlaming, a French teacher in West Point, Virginia who was fired for refusing to call a girl a boy.

“Mr. Vlaming made an effort to be respectful of the student by using the student’s newly chosen (traditionally male) name, and to refrain from using any pronouns altogether,” noted Cobb. “All he did was follow his conscience, which would not let him speak objective falsehoods that did not align with biological realities.”

“SB 161 would no doubt lead to more cases like Peter Vlaming's, which will only deter highly qualified people from (pursuing) the teaching profession.”

For the first time in 26 years, in November 2019, Democrats control both chambers of the Virginia legislature and the governorship, despite the party’s top three state officials being implicated in infanticide, blackface, and sexual assault scandals. 

Democrat Governor Ralph Northam, a pediatric neurologist, made his infamous pro-infanticide remarks in January 2019; both Northam and Attorney General Mark Herring then admitted to having worn blackface in college, with the former being pictured in his medical school yearbook either in blackface or a Ku Klux Klan robe; and two women accused Lt. Governor Justin Fairfax of sexually assaulting them.

RELATED:

Abortion activists announce plans to make Virginia a ‘safe haven’ for abortion after election wins

Virginia bill would allow birth control, vaccines for kids without parental consent

Pro-life leaders warn: Equal Rights Amendment is actually ‘Everything Related to Abortion Act’