Today, the House of Delegates voted along party lines to overturn the “Women’s Right to Know” Informed Consent law regarding abortion.  Tomorrow, the Senate is expected to follow suit and pass SB 733.

HB 980 (Del. Price, D-95th) removed all the hard won rational and much-needed provisions of the law first passed in 2001. The law required that the Virginia Department of Health provide written materials that would inform a woman considering abortion about medically accurate facts regarding her pregnancy, including the development of her unborn child, as well as types of abortions and risks associated to each. Also rejected was the sensible requirement that a woman be given 24 hours to consider the information from the Department of Health and be allowed to see a required ultrasound –if she wanted to–before making the irreversible decision to abort her baby.

Most alarming is that both bills allow nurse practitioners to perform abortions. This change will put more Virginia women in harm’s way through the distribution of dangerous abortion drugs and subject them to potentially life-threatening complications. The Supreme Court has never lifted the restriction that abortion was to be performed by physicians only.  

Last September, in a U.S. District Court decision, Judge Henry Hudson upheld the very requirements that were dismantled today. His decision ruled that none of them were burdensome and should be allowed to stand. 

“This week will be remembered as a tragic one for the well-being of all women in Virginia as well as their unborn children.  The action of the General Assembly only serves to protect abortionists who once more will be able to hide the truth from the women that come to them,” said Olivia Gans Turner, VSHL President.