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The day after last week’s historic pro-life victory in the General Assembly (see Richmond Times-Dispatch), Planned Parenthood and its abortion industry allies rallied in Richmond to decry the government’s “attack on women.” Those senators who voted in favor of abortion center safety regulations, and Lt. Governor Bill Bolling who broke the tie in the Virginia Senate, now are likely targets of their action.

We need to make sure that those who stood for life and safety receive the thanks they deserve. So please contact Lt. Governor Bolling and the senators who voted in favor of improving the health and safety standards at Virginia’s abortion centers (SB 924) and thank them for their vote (see below)! These elected officials deserve our gratitude for their action and political courage for voting to regulate abortion centers after years of stiff resistance and pressure by liberal and pro-abortion groups such as Planned Parenthood and NARAL. 

Before too long, after more than two decades of hiding behind a veil of secrecy, Virginia’s abortion centers will have to meet basic sanitary and safety standards. While the media is framing the legislation as “forcing abortion clinics to become hospitals,” the facts are entirely different. Virginia has several categories of hospitals (inpatient, psychiatric, rehabilitation, outpatient surgical, etc.). These categories of hospitals are subject to different regulations. They are not required to meet the standards of general hospitals. Instead, they are regulated according to their specialty. Likewise, abortion centers now will be categorized as a type of hospital and the Board of Health will create regulations that are appropriate.

We hope that you are savoring last week’s victory. At our weekly General Assembly session devotion Friday, we were reminded that God is sovereign and directs those in power. While we know that a lot of hard work went into this legislative victory, and many legislators and elected officials took a brave stand, we are well aware that our God is deserving of all the praise for this historic vote!

We also acknowledge our good friends at the Virginia Catholic Conference and the Virginia Assembly of Independent Baptists for their help in getting this legislation passed. Both organizations worked tirelessly on this and a host of other issues this session. Their partnership is vital to our, and the pro-life movement’s, success.

To thank your senator who voted for SB 924 and Lt. Governor Bill Bolling for breaking the tie vote, click here!

It’s never easy to negotiate a straight road through the General Assembly. This year, even as many issues long ago were decided, a stunning development has presented us a monumental last minute vote — but even that’s been pushed back a day. 

The Virginia Senate, after some debate today, put off until tomorrow a vote on the pro-life House amendment to SB 924. The bill, patroned by Senator Ryan McDougle (R-4, Mechanicsville), directs the Board of Health to create regulations regarding hospitals, nursing homes, and certified nursing facilities. However, Delegate Kathy Byron’s (R-22, Lynchburg) floor amendment (read here) Monday tacked on abortion centers to the types of facilities to come under these regulations. Once the House of Delegates approved the amendment and then the bill, it moved back to the Senate which will have to approve or reject the amendment and the bill.

In effect, the new version of bill requires the Board of Health to create abortion center safety regulations — an initiative The Family Foundation has pushed for more than a decade. But pro-abortion lawmakers successfully negotiated a one-day delay in the vote, presumably to pressure two pro-life Democrats. The Washington Post’s Virginia Politics blog reported today that Democrat Senators Chuck Colgan (D-29, Manassas) and Phil Puckett (D-38, Tazewell) have committed to support the amendment. We’re hopeful one more may come around as well. If the 18 Republican senators vote as a block, the addition of Senators Colgan and Puckett would result in a 20-20 tie, in which case Lieutenant Governor Bill Bolling would cast the deciding vote. A pro-life advocate during his time in the legislature, Lieutenant Governor Bolling is likely to support the amendment.

During today’s debate, opponents inaccurately portrayed the bill as forcing abortion centers to become hospitals with identical regulations. In fact, the bill as amended simply states that abortion centers are a type of hospital and that the Board of Health would have to promulgate regulations for this new classification of hospital, just as there are regulations for ambulatory surgery centers.
 
It is likely that tomorrow pro-abortion legislators will pull out every procedural move in the book in an attempt to derail this monumental win for the pro-life movement. Simply put, any attempt to monkey with the process (for example, attempting re-refer to committee or declaring the amendment not germane) will be seen as a deliberate attempt to prevent passage of the amendment and in effect the same as a vote against the amendment. After years of waiting for this day, pro-life advocates deserve an up or down vote on abortion center safety on the Senate floor.

Pressure and parliamentary tricks. That’s what the pro-abortion movement has come down to. Will it be enough to overcome what is right and the will of the people?
 
Thank you to those who have already contacted their Senators to support  this critical amendment. For those of you who have not yet done so, we urge you to do so immediately and affect this historic and monumental opportunity. 

Contact your senator by e-mail.

Contact your senator by phone.

Learn who your senator is.

For years pro-life Virginians have tried to convince the General Assembly that abortion centers need to be regulated for the sake of the safety of the women who unfortunately decide to end their pregnancies. The fact that the Virginia Senate, in particular, has refused to let regulation bills out of committee has proven that they aren’t serious about the so-called “safe, legal and rare” policy.

However today, on the House floor, Delegate Kathy Byron (R-22, Lynchburg) was successful in amending SB 924, a bill that requires the Board of Health to promulgate regulations containing minimum standards for certain medical facilities, to include abortion centers! A pro-abortion delegate challenged the germaneness of the amendment, but after consulting with his parliamentarian, House Speaker Bill Howell (R-28, Stafford) ruled that the inclusion of abortion centers was germane because it was in the class of medical facilities enumerated in the bill and did not change the definition of the bill. After a brief debate, the amendment passed 63-34, then the bill itself passed 67-32. 

Because it is a Senate bill amended by the House, the full Senate must vote on it again in the next day or two! Finally, we will have a historic vote on regulating abortion centers in Virginia! Please contact your senator immediately and urge him or her to vote for the amended version of SB 924!   

Abortion center safety has received increased attention recently due to two unrelated events: a botched abortion originating with New Jersey-based Dr. Steven Brigham and a “horror shop” abortion center in Philadelphia. Pro-abortion advocates look at these examples and say, “Tell us of something in Virginia and then maybe we’ll listen.” The fact is that Dr. Brigham, who lost his license because he started late term abortions at his New Jersey centers and then transferred patients to Maryland to complete them, owns two abortion centers in Virginia and has no Virginia medical license. (He is not licensed in Maryland, either.)

Additionally, Dr. Brigham’s two Virginia abortion center Web sites offer the following surgical abortion procedure:

Surgical abortion patients who are between 14 and 24 weeks pregnant will be referred to our Cheverly [MD] location after their first appointment for the completion of their procedure.

Abortions after 13 weeks in Virginia must be done in a hospital, not a clinic. It is not clear whether these two Virginia abortion centers are beginning illegal abortions or if a doctor at these two centers is practicing in Virginia without a license. We were able to locate Dr. Brigham’s centers in Virginia  only because of the tragic situation in New Jersey.

Sadly, without the tragic medical emergency in New Jersey that led to his discovery, Virginians would never know about Dr. Brigham. Of course, we still don’t know as much as we should because his abortion centers, and those of Planned Parenthood and every other abortionist, are neither inspected nor reviewed. Currently, the only way for the state to find out if there is a problem in an abortion center is if a woman who had an abortion files a complaint with the state — violating her right to privacy and opening herself up to publicity.

Virginia once responsibly regulated abortion centers with regulations upheld by the federal courts as constitutional. Years ago, we unilaterally suspended them. Now, after decades, the full Senate will have a historic vote as to whether the Board of Health must develop new ones. Please don’t let this opportunity pass. Help us create history this session with a landmark Senate pro-life vote. Ask your senator now to vote for SB 924 as amended, as it will come up in the next day or two.

Contact your senator by e-mail.

Contact your senator by phone.

Learn who your senator is.

FRC Action President Tony Perkins just sent out an urgent appeal on legislation before Congress that is a high priority on the homosexual lobby’s agenda: Ending the military’s “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” policy and allowing open homosexuals into the U.S. Armed Forces. But it’s worse than that. there’s a major payback to the abortion lobby as well. In what is supposed to be a Defense Department authorization bill, the leadership of the most left wing Congress ever also have included language that would make American military medical centers, both domestic and overseas, full-service abortion centers — Planned Parenthood on steroids.

If this is what the American public so desperately desires, why won’t the leadership put these measures in stand alone legislation for an up or down vote? Why, instead, is it attempting to hijack the authorization process for our military during a time of war? As Tony requests, we hope you call our senators, Mark Warner and Jim Webb at (202) 224-3121, as soon as possible and ask them to oppose this bill. The vote is Tuesday.

Here’s Tony’s take:

With the economy still in the doldrums, and a massive job-killing tax increase scheduled for January looming over our heads, you would think that legislation to help average Americans find jobs in the private sector would be the top priority for the Democratic leadership in Congress. If you thought that, you would be wrong.

This Tuesday the Senate will vote on a bill that would overturn the 1993 law which codified the military’s longstanding prohibition of homosexual conduct in the ranks. The language that would force open homosexuality upon the military is found in the defense authorization bill — along with another anti-family provision that would turn U.S. military medical facilities here and around the globe into abortion centers.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has arranged it so that pro-family senators do not have an opportunity to offer any of their own amendments to counter his political abuse of our military. This means the only way to stop this monstrosity is to vote against proceeding to the bill.

This bill is not necessary to fund our military — an appropriations bill does that.

Senators should reject Reid’s distorted priorities by voting against advancing this bill at every step. Call your senators today at (202) 224-3121 and tell them to stop using the military to impose this administration’s radical homosexual agenda.

Thank you for taking action today and God bless you.

We just received an e-mail from Planned Parenthood. It’s oh, so heartwarming (not!) to see the abortion industry celebrate the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, as millions of people in Washington, D.C., today, and elsewhere, mourn the deplorable decision.

This is how they celebrate: They send an e-mail alert that lies about the content of HB 393, a bill passed on a bipartisan 16-6 vote yesterday in the House Health, Welfare and Institutions Committee. It would add three simple, common sense provisions to unregulated abortion centers. The bill, patroned by Delegate Matt Lohr (R-26, Harrisonburg) goes to the House floor for an up or down vote Monday (contact your delegate).

Just as during their committee testimony yesterday, the e-mail is full of lies about the bill. It’s a standard liberal tactic: The truth is whatever you say it is, no matter if what you say is no where to be found in the bill. For example, PP makes claims about “the architectural, procedural, staffing and equipment requirements of ambulatory surgery centers” which are not in the bill.

The bill mandates three simple things: licensure, an annual inspection and keeping defibrillators on premises. (There are three defibrillators in the General Assembly Building!) Nothing about building codes or staffing. In fact, in 2008, when this same bill came before the Senate Education and Health Committee, and Delegate Lohr offered the committee a substitute in full view of the committee room that specifically limited the bill to those three elements, the PP lobbyist read from her script, not deviating one second, using rote talking points about a bill 10 years old. It was the same yesterday in committee.  

So, thank you PP, for putting lies ahead of women’s safety. Below is the e-mail (apparently sent to non-Virginians as well) in which PP tells its followers how and what to say to lawmakers, word for word.

Dear xxxxx,

Today marks the 37th anniversary of Roe V. Wade, the landmark Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion in the United States. Since this time, there have been numerous attempts to chip away at Roe on the local, state, and federal levels. One of the biggest threats to Roe today is decreased access to providers of first trimester abortions. In fact, 87% of counties in the United States do not have abortion providers.

Ironically, members of the Virginia House of Delegates will be voting on HB 393, Targeted Regulations for Abortion Providers, on Monday, January 25. This bill is a thinly disguised attempt to impose burdensome and unnecessary regulations on abortion providers so that the provision of services would become prohibitively expensive and thus out of reach for many women in Virginia. 

Please contact your legislator and ask him or her to OPPOSE HB 393.

Send a letter to the following decision maker(s):

Your Delegate (if you live in Virginia)

Below is the sample letter:

Subject: Please OPPOSE HB 393, Targeted Regulations for Abortion Providers

Dear [decision maker],

I am writing to ask that you OPPOSE HB 393, Targeted Regulations for Abortion Providers. This legislation has little to do with patient safety and is instead intended to decrease access to safe abortion services in Virginia. Abortion care is already provided safely in accordance with state and federal regulatory agencies. Furthermore, the architectural, procedural, staffing and equipment requirements of ambulatory surgery centers are unrelated to the safety of first trimester abortion procedures provided in medical offices.

Compliance with these unnecessary requirements would make abortion services prohibitively expensive to provide and thus unavailable for many women in Virginia.

Please protect women’s access to reproductive health care and OPPOSE HB 393.

On September 24, Family Foundation of Virginia President Victoria Cobb e-mailed an alert to our thousands of grassroots activists informing them of the harsh measures Planned Parenthood and NARAL-Virginia have undertaken to weaken Pregnancy Resource Centers — clinics that offer choices to pregnant women other than abortion. (Right, I know you got the irony there.)

Below is the alert, but what I haven’t had time to report was the hysterical response from NARAL and PP. Within a few hours of sending the e-mail, NARAL was up with this out-of-breath-huff (click here or not). I noticed it when I saw a pingback to the blog (NARAL linked to one of our posts, here). It accused us of “fundraising” at their expense. We did ask for money, but asked that people give it to the PRCs! These helping-hand, non-political clinics, which threaten no one and try to foster life, apparently send shivers up the spine of pro-abortion, uhhh, “pro-choice” radicals.

NARAL’s response was headlined, “Family Foundation using us as a fundraising tool,” with the words, “Read this solicitation. Get angry. And get involved in the upcoming election cycle!”

What exactly is in the alert that would make someone angry? Perhaps the part about women choosingan alternative to abortion? Or the fact that PRCs take paying clients away from Planned Parenthood? No one’s been able to tell us, but it reveals a bit of the pro-abortion movement’s mentality. Here’s the text of the alert:

Information Alert: Pro-abortion advocates attack pregnancy centers

It should come as no surprise that Planned Parenthood and NARAL-Virginia are attacking Pregnancy Resource Centers in Virginia. The fact that women now have a real choice of where to go when they face a crisis pregnancy must send shivers down the spine of the pro-abortion movement. Imagine women hearing that there are better alternatives to abortion in a warm, non-judgmental, and safe medical environment.

That, my friends, is Planned Parenthood and NARAL’s worst nightmare.

So before the paint was dry on the first “Choose Life” license plates that were made available this year, with revenue going to PRCs, our “choice” advocates immediately sought to eliminate that choice. Pro-abortion special interests set up an online petition to urge the General Assembly to cut off the funding stream from the license plates to PRCs. This is part of an overarching national strategy to shut down PRCs, ensuring that women have no place to go but abortion centers. In other states they’ve gone so far as to push legislation to simply outlaw PRCs!

Unfortunately, too few people understand the incredible role that PRCs are playing in the lives of women across America, and many fall for the lies of the abortion movement. The fact is, that PRCs are far safer and more woman-friendly than any abortion center.

According to a recent report entitled “A Passion to Serve, A Vision for Life,” there are approximately 2,300 PRCs serving women in the United States, with most regulated by one of three organizations — Care Net, Heartbeat International and the National Institutes of Family and Life Advocates. The report states, “Every day in the United States PRCs assist an average of 5,500 Americans, female and male, young and old, with sexuality-and-pregnancy related concerns.” Services include assisting women, counseling couples, providing goods and services, and offering free and confidential pregnancy care. Approximately 660 of these facilities are medical clinics, offering pregnancy tests, ultrasounds and more.

The medical clinics meet local, state and federal guidelines and where ultrasounds are offered they follow the strict guidelines issued by the American Institute in Ultrasound Medicine, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the American College of Radiology.

Most interesting is the fact that the annual income at these clinics is estimated at $200 million, with less than ten percent of that coming from government sources. Compare that to the $350 million in taxpayer subsidies that Planned Parenthood clinics received last year alone; that translates to more than one-third of their billion-dollar income.

The Family Foundation will fight with all of our energy and resources to protect the incredible services being provided by PRCs. From ensuring that the revenue from Choose Life plates continues going to these well-regulated and effective organizations, to educating Virginians on their positive impact, to exposing the lies of Planned Parenthood and NARAL, we won’t stop.

But we can all help in other ways as well. Purchase a Choose Life license plate. Click here to visit the DMV Web site where you can order your personal Choose Life license plate. Once 1,000 Choose Life license plate registrations are received, $15 of the $25 plate fees will be given to Virginia’s qualifying Pregnancy Resource Centers.

Additionally, find the PRC in your community and volunteer your time and treasure to them. They are on the frontlines, giving women in crisis a positive alternative to the detestation of abortion. They need your help.

That Facebook thing is pretty cool. From it, we received the following message from our friends at the Richmond 40 Days for Life campaign and the Richmond Coalition for Life.

Dear Friends:

The prayers across the world are being felt.  There’s something else BIG to report — the FIRST BABY SAVED from abortion during this brand-new campaign!

Two women were praying at a 40 Days for Life vigil in New Jersey — for one of them, it was the first time ever. As they were praying, they saw a woman who had just come out of the clinic and was standing near the door. When the women whowere praying asked if she would take a flyer, she had a simple response: “I didn’t do it! I changed my mind.” WOW! …

Thank you for all that you are doing.

If you want to receive those emails (such as about the New Jersey woman) directly, just sign up on the 40 Days for Life website (click here) and Shawn, the national spring campaign director will send them to you.

The Richmond campaign started last night with a Prayer Kickoff Rally at St. Benedict’s Catholic Church. 40 Days for Life is a national campaign, held throughout the country, where round-the-clock prayer vigils outside abortion centers are kept for 40 days. If you want to start one in your area, get the necessary information at the national organization’s Web site linked above. Oh yeah, about that Facebook thing . . . go to it and learn more about 40 Days for Life (by signing in here) and our own Facebook page, here. Lots of great info at each, including General Assembly video at our site.

One thing that has always frustrated me about the life debate, especially during the General Assembly, is that pro-lifers sometimes concede the semantics to the pro-abortion side. Simple case: Each year we support legislation that would license abortion “clinics” — the only type “medical” facility that escapes such basic oversight, especially considering the importance of the situations in which women who visit them find themselves.

I hate using the word “clinic” in conjunction with abortion. A clinic is where you go to get well — not to kill a baby. I’ve tried “facility” but that does not capture the graveness of the activities that go on in these buildings. Friday, in a meeting, someone hit it spot on: “centers,” as in abortion centers, because that’s exactly what they are; centers carrying the connotation of “mass scale” or “large” — a place where much rote assembly line acitvity goes on.  Using it already, people have caught on — the understanding is immediate. It conveys exactly the heinous nature of what takes place in these centers of destruction.

Which leads to this Thursday in the Senate Committee on Education and Health (see members here to contact), which happens to its last meeting before crossover, and which also happens to be Planned Parenthood’s lobby day. Here is the great tradition the two have worked out: Save the pro-life bills for PP’s day at the GAB and kill them all to appease the committee pro-abortion majority’s biggest supporters. But that also happens to be The Family Foundation’s virtual lobby day, and we hope you participate by contacting your senators and delegates about defunding Planned Parenthood and supporting pro-life legislation.

So, not so coincidentally, E&H will hear SB 1270, patroned by Senator Jill Vogel (R-27, Winchester). The bill will be amended and offer three simple requirements: A yearly inspection, life-saving equipment (which our lawmakers have in the GAB) and a registration/licensure of some type with an oversight agency. Let’s see how those who claim to be for “safe, legal and rare,” vote and if they think abortion centers should still claim exemption from the slightest of regulations, much less than what even podiatrists are subjected to. If they find excuses for defeating this, their cover, however, thin it is now, will be completely blown — as shattered as the term abortion “clinic.”