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Today is crossover at the General Assembly, the day when the House and Senate have to complete work on bills introduced in their respective chambers. Consequently, yesterday the House spent nearly 11 hours on the floor debating bills, with final votes taking place today. The Senate did their marathon debate and vote session today.

Several Family Foundation priorities passed the House of Delegates, some after lengthy debates took place on the proposals yesterday.

HB 1440, patroned by Delegate Bob Marshall (R-13, Manassas), which would provide protection (civil recourse) for the unborn in cases where they lose their life due to the negligence of another, passed 62-36 — despite the wild accusations by Delegate Vivian Watts (D-39, Fairfax), who claimed the legislation would outlaw contraception. Delegate Dave Albo (R-42, Fairfax), the chairman of the Courts of Justice Committee, which reviewed the bill, defended it on the floor. He said that he had several attorneys and committee legal counsel review the legislation and all agreed that the bill, nearly identical to a 20-year-plus Missouri law, and which was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1989, would not affect legal contraception in any way.

HB 2147, patroned by Delegate Ben Cline (R-24, Rockbridge), would prevent health insurance plans in the Virginia health insurance exchange, required by ObamaCare, from providing abortion coverage. This preemptive strike against ObamaCare, should it be implemented, passed 60-36.

The House today also passed by a vote of 54-45 HB 2314, legislation patroned by Delegate Jimmie Massie (R-72, Henrico), that would provide a tax credit for corporate donations to private scholarship programs. This education opportunity legislation is tailored to help low-income families. It is modeled after a successful Florida scholarship program that has helped more than 20,000 students and saved the state more than $36 million in FY2008-09. (We hope you join us this Thursday for our Family Foundation Day at the Capitol and Rally, which will focus on this legislation.)

Also passing today was legislation that will create an “In God We Trust” license plate. The bill, HB 1418, is an omnibus license plate bill patroned by Delegate John O’Bannon (R-73, Richmond) that incorporates the “IGWT” plate bill introduced by Delegate Dickie Bell (R-20, Staunton). A Senate bill (SB 811), patroned by Senator Mark Obenshain (R-26, Harrisonburg) creating the same license plate also passed the Senate today.

Thank you to everyone who has contacted their delegates and senators on these and other issues. After today the bills that have passed the House or Senate will “crossover” to the other chamber to go through the committee process. Please continue to respond to our action alerts (sign up here) and keep up with all the General Assembly news and video by returning to this site, and by following us on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube as the General Assembly session continues in the coming weeks.

Virginia took the lead in opposing ObamaCare — first, with last year’s Virginia Healthcare Freedom Act, then, later in the year, with a legal challenge to ObamaCare’s constitutionality. This year, HB 2147, patroned by Delegate Ben Cline (R-24, Rockbridge), would prevent insurance plans in the Virginia health insurance exchange, required by ObamaCare, from providing abortion coverage. 

HB 2147 was introduced as a preemptive measure to ensure that Virginia taxpayers are not forced to subsidize abortion in the event that the lawsuit is not successful. If ObamaCare was fully implemented today, Virginia could potentially include in its exchange health insurance plans that cover elective abortion. Pro-family citizens opposed to abortion would be mandated to fund this unethical destruction of human life. However, the new federal healthcare law allows states to opt out of abortion funding in their statewide exchanges. More than 30 states have either passed or are introducing opt-out legislation regarding the coverage of abortion in these exchanges, while Pennsylvania and Maryland include it.

Please contact your delegate as soon as possible (contact information here) and urge him or her to vote for the bill (or, click here to determine your delegate).

Last night HB 2147, which provides an abortion funding opt-out for ObamaCare, and patroned by Delegate Ben Cline (R-24, Rockbridge), barely made it out of a House sub-committee on a 6-5 vote. It next goes to the full House Commerce and Labor Committee Thursday afternoon.

Please contact members today and ask them to vote to report HB 2147.

HB 2147 was introduced as a preemptive measure to ensure that Virginia taxpayers are not forced to subsidize abortion in ObamaCare’s mandated state-run health insurance exchanges. If Virginia’s constitutional challenge is ultimately not successful, and ObamaCare gets fully enacted, Virginia could potentially offer taxpayer funded elective abortion coverage through its insurance exchange. Pro-family citizens opposed to abortion would be mandated to fund this unethical destruction of human life.

Anticipating this problem, there is a clause in the federal health care law that allows states to opt out of abortion funding in their statewide exchanges.  More than 30 states have either passed or are introducing opt-out legislation regarding the coverage of abortion in these exchanges, while Pennsylvania and Maryland are offering this coverage.

Even so, debate was hot last night in subcommittee (see video below). NARAL’s representative claimed in her testimony that “this bill is the ultimate example of government intrusion into private contracts.” If excluding taxpayer dollars from funding elective abortion is “the ultimate” in government intrusion, what exactly is ObamaCare? Others argued that this bill is premature, since a health care exchange has not been set up yet in Virginia — exactly why we (and those 30 states) must be proactive, not reactive, in preventing the funding of the destruction of human life.

HB 2147 is on the docket for the House Commerce and Labor committee meeting this Thursday afternoon. Committee members need to hear today from their constituents on the importance of this bill!

Delegate Cline makes the case: Virginia must be prepared not to spend taxpayers’ money on elective abortion.

Hearing is sometimes not believing, which is good when NARAL presents testimony.