Virginia "Personhood" Bill Dies in Virginia Senate

In what is likely another example that national condemnation and nightly TV primetime parody carry more weight with the Virginia GOP than common sense and logic (which would have prevented the introduction of the extreme bills this session), the Virginia Senate has voted to send Del. Bob Marshall's Christofascist backed "personhood" bill back to committee and thereby kill the measure for this year. Personally, I'd love to know what strings Taliban Bob McDonnell pulled behind the scenes in order to make sure he did not have to make a decision of whether to sign or veto the bill if it got to his desk. One can only assume that Victoria Cobb is acting like she's got a severe case of constipation on this news and will be on the warpath. For rational and thinking women (some of whom are pictured in the photo above), I hope that they remember the GOP's war on women in November and vote a straight Democrat ballot. The Virginia GOP will certainly deserve such retribution.

Meanwhile, with the watering down of the "ultrasound" bill at McDonnell's demand, the only remaining "must pass" Christianist bill likely to land on McDonnell's desk is the anti-gay adoption bill which will allow agencies funded with state funds to discriminate against gay adoptive parents. Would that Saturday Night Live and the Daily Show would go after McDonnell with a vengeance on that issue. Here are highlights from Virginian Pilot on the happy death of the "personhood" bill:

The full Virginia Senate tabled a bill declaring that life begins at conception this afternoon, just hours after it was approved by a committee on an 8-7 vote. Senators Thomas Norment, R-James City County, and Richard Saslaw, D-Fairfax County, both proposed that the so-called "personhood" bill, HB1, be sent back to the Senate Education and Health Committee and be passed by for the year. Their proposal passed 24-14. The vote means the legislation can’t be resurrected this year.

The measure has drawn the ire of abortion rights advocates and some doctors and advocates for infertile couples, who insist that it could criminalize in-vitro fertilization as well as most forms of birth control.

Emotions were similarly intense over an effort to require women to undergo an ultrasound before they have an abortion. In its original form, Del. Kathy Byron’s bill, HB462, was written in such a way that it could have required women to have an ultrasound that involved the insertion of a probe into the vagina.

As public outcry and national backlash to the ultrasound legislation mounted, McDonnell on Wednesday told lawmakers he did not support a mandate to make have that kind of invasive ultrasound. The governor’s decision drew rebuke from some social conservatives; he previously expressed support for ultrasound legislation.

Katherine Greenier of the ACLU of Virginia called the tabling of the bill a “victory for women’s rights and health,” though she cautioned that other bills to restrict abortion are still pending. She expressed disappointment that the personhood bill was only passed by for the year, but praised legislators who “truly took in the concerns raised to not place politics over women’s health.”