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The Senate Education and Health Committee richly deserves its “Committee of Death” moniker — it has been the graveyard for pro-life legislation for most of the decade. No pro-life bill has survived this committee regardless of its simplicity or common sense. As usual, a valuable bill that would have improved the safety regulations of the Commonwealth’s abortion centers was defeated there yesterday on a vote of 11-4 — a party line vote, with the exception of Senator Fred Quayle (R-13, Suffolk), who voted against the bill as he did last year. Patroned by Delegate Matt Lohr (R-26, Harrisonburg), HB 393 would require that these unregulated surgical facilities that perform abortions to be inspected, have emergency life-saving equipment, and be overseen by a state regulatory agency just as any other outpatient surgical center. This legislation has long been a pro-life priority.

Delegate Lohr eloquently pointed out to the committee the disparity between how these unregulated surgical abortion centers are treated compared to other medical facilities. As inexplicable as it is, 11 members of the committee believe that incredibly less invasive procedures such as lasik surgery, blood donation, face lifts, colonoscopies and oral surgery should be held to higher standards than abortion procedures.

Perhaps most alarming was Dr. Wendy Klein, from the VCU School of Medicine, who claimed, “Abortion is the safest medical procedure you can have!” The opposition to HB 393 cited the National Abortion Federation, an association that oversees seven abortion centers in Virginia, as a reliable self-regulatory organization. However, as I clarified in my testimony, this is far from reassuring. For example, NAF requires only a midlevel clinician (not necessarily a physician) to perform an abortion procedure. Fortunately, Virginia Code protects against this, but clearly NAF guidelines, as exemplified in this one standard, cannot be assumed sufficient!

Countering these arguments, in addition to Delegate Lohr and The Family Foundation, were a number of organizations that clearly outnumbered the pro-abortion forces, including representatives from the Governor’s Office, the Attorney General’s Office, Virginia Society For Human Life and the Virginia Catholic Conference.

Dr. Klein was at it again on HB 334, patroned by Delegate Bob Marshall (R-13, Manassas). This bill, also defeated yesterday on the exact same 11-4 vote, would bolster Virginia’s informed consent law by making available to women seeking abortions statistics that show the difficulties of future pregnancies and births to women who previously had abortions (as much as eight times higher). She said that bill presumes women can’t figure out things for themselves. So, she admits there are risks!

Even more shocking was Senator Dick Saslaw’s (D-35, Springfield) response to the citation of the House of Delegates vote on this bill (95-2). He said a member told him it got that many votes because many who voted for it knew “we’d kill it over here.” Aside from the crass cynicism and joy he seemed to take in those seemingly vindictive words, if Senator Saslaw is correct, it shows that an overwhelmingly large amount of Virginians favor this type of legislation and that their representatives are afraid to vote against their constituents’ interests. The pro-abortion crowd can’t have it both ways.

While it is difficult to stand before this committee year in and year out with such reasonable legislation only to see it killed, we appreciate the legislators who are willing to continue to force lawmakers to go on record opposing this legislation. The Family Foundation remains committed to fighting for pro-life and pro-family issues.

I’ve been working for The Family Foundation for over a decade and thought I’d seen it all, but this morning’s display by several members of the Senate Finance Committee while debating a school choice bill went far beyond anything I’ve ever seen.

Delegate Jimmie Massie (R-78, Henrico) presented HB 599, a bill that would provide a tax credit for donations to private school scholarship programs. After several organizations, including The Family Foundation, the Virginia Catholic Conference, a private schools association and a Richmond Jewish school, spoke in support of the bill, the committee took over. From there, the normal decorum of the Senate vanished into a cloud of pure anger.

The hostility of several Democrat members of the Finance Committee to parents and education freedom went on full display. I cannot with words adequately describe what then took place. But you don’t have to take my word for it — we have the entire shameful sequence on video (see our YouTube channel as well)! Here is the entire committee hearing in its entirety:

Part 1, Delegate Massie’s Presentation:

Common sense stuff from Delegate Massie and a host of expert witnesses.

Part 2,  Supporting Statements Continue:

An eloquent, passionate, personal and intellectual presentation by Chesapeake resident Alberta Wilson.

Part 3, Finance Staff — No Fiscal Impact And The Outrage Begins:

Senator Howell should know the answer before she calls the witness!

Part 4, More Race Cards, Conclusion and Vote:

Senator Miller: This bill is akin to “selling people” but she’d still vote for it once public schools are fully funded!

In addition to all of this, Senator Henry Marsh (D-16, Richmond) criticized the bill without reading it: He accused the bill of subsidizing parents who send their children to private schools, but the bill plainly states the student must currently be enrolled in public schools to be eligible for the scholarships! I urge you to take the time to watch these short videos. I know you will be as dismayed as I was sitting there watching.

In a nutshell, opponents to the bill implied over and over that efforts to provide education freedom for low and moderate-income families is racially motivated. Without actually making the claim it was clear what they were saying. The harsh tone and rhetoric on display was simply appalling. Perhaps most disappointing is the fact that the children who are suffering most from poor government schools are African-American children in urban areas. It is private schools in those areas that offer true hope for children who otherwise have little chance at success. In fact, one of the most compelling testimonies in favor of the bill came from an African-American woman, Alberta Wilson, a champion of school choice!

Question: Do Senators Colgan, Reynolds and Houck, who also voted to kill the bill, agree with their Democrat colleagues’ assessment that school choice is essentially racist?

After watching the videos, ask them yourselves:

Senator Charles Colgan: district29@senate.virginia.gov, (804) 698-7529

Senator Roscoe Reynolds: district20@senate.virginia.gov, (804) 698-7520

Senator Edd Houck: district17@senate.virginia.gov, (804) 698-7517

This morning’s antics are emblematic of the philosophical divide between the political class in Richmond and families. But the anger displayed also is indicative that these legislators are beginning to feel the heat! Just two years ago, school choice bills didn’t even register a procedural motion in Senate Finance. Today, they generate heated responses.

I’ll say it again as I’ve said before — school choice is coming to Virginia! It might not be this year, it might not be next year, but it is coming. Families are demanding it. Watch the video so that you can see exactly whom it is that stands in the way of freedom.

You might not hear much about this in the Mainstream Media, although the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot mentions it toward the end of this article. But that’s why we and the New Media are here. And, we’d love to hear from you, too. Let us know what your impressions of the committee hearing are.

We are part of a wide-ranging coalition of organizations that earlier today released results of a statewide poll and a study on education choice in Virginia. Among our release partners are School Choice Virginia, the Virginia Catholic Conference, the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America, Verizon Virginia, the Black Alliance for Educational Options, the Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy, The Lexington Institute, the Virginia Council for Private Education and Markel Corporation. From corporations to think tanks to religious organizations and minority advocacy groups — all agree: Virginia needs vastly more options in education that it currently provides.    

The poll was conducted in October by Braun Research, Inc., and an accompanying study was authored by Paul DiPerna of The Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice. While it shows that while Virginians support public schools, it also shows they overwhelmingly support education freedom and choice, something clearly lacking in the commonwealth right now. (For example, Virginia only has four charter schools.)

Survey highlights include:

» Broad support among Democrats, Republicans and Independents for tax-credit scholarship programs and school vouchers.

» 64 percent of Democrats support for tax-credit scholarships.

» 53 percent support school vouchers.

» They are more likely to favor, rather than oppose, these policies by +43 percentage points and +15 percentage points, respectively.

Also, these stats are sure to blow away the educrats:

» While the survey found that 62 percent of Virginians believe the public school system is “good” or “excellent,” when given the choice between sending their child to a public school or an alternative (private, charter or homeschooling) 54 percent said they would choose the alternative.

» Among parents whose children attend Virginia public schools, 40 percent would keep their children there while 39 percent would choose an alternative. (Currently, 90 percent of Virginia’s school children attend public schools.)

Poor educrat monopolists! No one wants to be entrapped by their product. When will government learn that people want choice. Choice is natural and instinctive. It breeds competition and produces better products and services. So when given a choice, people prefer choice to that which is state-run. See the complete survey and study here.

Summer isn’t over by nature’s calendar. But for all practical purposes today marks the start of a new season, because today, for a majority of Virginians, is back-to-school day. Unfortunately, it’s a day that is not without controversy: From President Obama’s speech to students to the “mandatory” HPV vaccine for sixth grade girls, to a confrontation today at the U.S. Department of Education, sending our kids out the door in the morning isn’t quite the exciting and momentous time it used to be for too many families.

In an interview last week with a reporter at the Wall Street Journal concerning President Obama’s speech, Family Foundation of Virginia President Victoria Cobb said that parents should be able to decide what their children participate in and learn, but in many cases, they are the last to know.

So what is really at the heart of the controversy surrounding back-to-school day? It is the feeling that many parents have that they are powerless and have little control over what their children are taught in government run schools. While the uproar over the president’s speech has been mostly about the potential content of his remarks, the underlying problem is the serious lack of trust many parents have not just with this president (ironic that he’s addressing students in public schools that he never attended), but with the “public” education system as a whole.

No longer can we count on teachers and schools reinforcing the values that we teach our kids at home. In fact, we are pretty much guaranteed that our values will be attacked, ridiculed and undermined nearly every day.

It is partly this mistrust in the government education system that is leading to the ever-increasing support we see for education freedom. Late last year, The Family Foundation and the Virginia Catholic Conference underwrote a Mason-Dixon poll that found a majority of Virginians support a tax credit to parents who choose to send their children to a private school. Similar polling done in predominately African-American communities found that nearly 70 percent of those polled support private education choice. The momentum is growing.

Families want to know that their children are receiving the best possible education for their children, and that their values are going to be reinforced. Today, many children are in a classroom where the opposite is true in both cases. Why should these children be forced to receive an inferior education?

Today, two education freedom leaders, Virginia Walden Ford and Kevin Chavous, stood in front of the U.S. Department of Education building in Washington, D.C., blocking its entrance, to illustrate how President Obama and Education Secretary Arne Duncan have blocked low-income D.C. students from going to the schools of their parents’ choice by gutting funding to the D.C. scholarship program. Clearly, the battle for the minds of the future generation is in full swing.

The Family Foundation is a proud member of School Choice Virginia, an organization started by Delegate Chris Saxman (R-20, Staunton) that is working to bring education freedom to parents and kids in our Commonwealth. Together with other pro-family groups and individuals that support choice, we will continue to work toward the day when parents and children can once again look forward to, and celebrate, back-to-school day because they know they are in the right school for them — the school of their choice.

One of the responsibilities we at The Family Foundation take very seriously is challenging the misinformation, distortions, or outright lies propagated by those opposed to traditional values, particularly as spread through the Mainstream Media, which shapes so much of popular culture and thought. It’s one of the reasons we started this blog and other social networking sites — to provide the truth. (Our YouTube channel, for example, provides uncut video of lawmakers in committee, where you can judge for yourself their attitude toward common sense, pro-traditional values, limited government legislation.)

Two examples of misrepresentation in the media have occurred over the last two weeks. One was the murder of Kansas abortionist George Tiller. Our own president, Victoria Cobb, was interviewed about it last week on the popular Richmond’s Morning News with Jimmy Barrett (hear it here) on WRVA-AM. In the interview, she dispelled the notion repeated by abortion extremists and some pundits that the murderer of George Tiller is representative of the pro-life movement in America.

She told listeners that, just as the pro-life movement was gaining headway(witness the recent Gallop poll that found a majority of Americans now consider themselves pro-life), pro-life advocates must expend precious time and energy to counter the notion that the murder somehow represents the overwhelming majority of thoughtful, peaceful pro-life Americans.

We know that some abortion extremists and mainstream media organs are using the murder to paint all Americans who seek to protect human life as enablers, morally equivalent to the acused murderer. That kind of rhetoric serves no positive purpose. Instead, it gives opportunities to extremists to label as dangerous law-abiding citizens who legally seek to protect unborn human life. It advances no cause and brings us no closer to resolution in this debate.

The other example was an opinion piece by Lindsay Oliver of the Richmond Reproductive Freedom Project, published in the Richmond Times-Dispatch a few weeks ago. She claimed that, “Although 15 states use their own funds to cover abortions under many circumstances, Virginia is not one of them.” 

This statement is absolutely false and Victoria responded as such in a letter to the editor the Times-Dispatch subsequently printed. In fact, despite legislative efforts by The Family Foundation, other pro-life organizations and thousands of pro-family citizens, Virginia continues to fund abortion — taxpayers even fund elective abortions! As Victoria wrote:

The Federal government subsidizes abortions only when a Medicaid-eligible woman’s life is at risk or in the cases of rape or incest. In Virginia, we fund abortions beyond the Federal requirements. Incredibly, from 2006-2007, Virginia tax dollars have funded 301 elective abortions (149 in fiscal-year 2007, and 152 in fiscal 2006).

Public interest is in favor of ending this funding. The Family Foundation and the Virginia Catholic Conference co-sponsored a Mason-Dixon poll in December 2008, and when asked if they supported Virginia’s policy of using state money to pay for abortions falling outside the categories of rape, incest, and endangering the life of the mother, 46 percent of respondents were opposed to the funding with only 39 percent in support.  Furthermore, a recent Harris poll found that 63 percent of Americans oppose the taxpayer funding of abortion. Combine this with the widely publicized recent Gallup poll showing that 53 percent of Americans believe that abortion should be legal only in certain circumstances, and it’s clear the tide against abortion on demand is growing.

The Family Foundation is honored to serve as a voice for traditional values in the public square. Correcting the lies and distortions of the left is a full time job, but one that we are more than willing to do.

It’s bad enough President Barack Obama wants to take away medical professionals’ conscience protections to refuse to participate in procedures antithetical to their beliefs and values. Now, his administration is making it open season on embryos and some radicals in Congress want to go further.

Here’s the situation: No doubt you know of the president’s executive order (see here) in early March to remove the restrictions on embryonic stem cell research put in place by former President George W. Bush — even though it flies in the face of recent medical breakthroughs (see here) and expert opinion, as we saw this week on his friend Oprah’s show (see here).

Still, the National Institute of Health has published draft guidelines to carry out the directive, which would allow the use of federal funds for stem cell research that requires destroying human embryos (unlike state funding, see here).

However, the public has a chance to be heard! As with the medical professionals’ conscience protections rules, there is a public comment period. It ends Tuesday, May 26, 2009. Hundreds of you e-mailed your comments to Washington regarding the conscience protections debate when we asked you and we need you to do so again — and spread the word!

It’s easy to send your comments. Our friends at the Virginia Catholic Conference today sent an alert explaining that the National Committee for a Human Life Amendment has set up a Web page with information on the issue and an e-mail system allowing you to express to your U.S. Representative and U.S. Senators your opposition to the use of your tax money for the destruction of embryos for stem cell research. Click here for the NCHLA Web site.

But that’s not all: The Catholic Conference informs us that:

“. . . some members of Congress have already stated a desire to move forward with legislation in favor of an even broader policy that would encourage the deliberate use of in vitro fertilization or cloning to produce human embryos for stem cell research.”  

Not only is it horrible to contemplate government destroying life, but encouraging the harvesting of it for destructive research and using our hard-earned tax dollars to do so! If this research was so compelling, so likely to provide cures, private money by investors hoping to profit would fly into the equation. After all, there’s a lot of money to be made on patents for cures and treatments.

The president and the hard left love to proclaim that we should follow the science and not the politics on this issue. As usual, it is the left purposefully twisting the argument because it is they who refuse to acknowledge the science that has produced 70-plus treatments and cures via adult stem cell research and zero from destroying embryos.

We always look to add blogs worth reading to our blog roll. There are so many of them now, it’s hard to keep up. But when new ones come to our attention, or ones that somehow slipped through the cracks are suddenly remembered, we not only add them, but give them a recommendation. So, we’re glad to point out some new additions to our blog roll, that we either recently added, or added a while ago but forgot to mention at the time.

One is Political Christian, a fairly new blog, by our friend Larry Miller. He’s also got an entire Web site linked to the blog which is a virtual resource center for information and citizen action. Another is VA Social Conservative, from Willie Deutsch, a 20-something, who proves there is a thriving youth social conservative movement in the blogosphere as well as in boots-on-the-ground political activism. 

We also added the Web site of the Virginia Catholic Conference, an organization that often is our only ally in the General Assembly as we fight to preserve innocent, unborn life. Its leadership in keeping state funds from finding their way to the hoax that is embryonic stem cell research is unparalleled. 

The Virginia News Platoon is a fairly new conservative news source and content provider, where Krystle Weeks of Crystal Clear Conservative is the Virginia News Editor. This site keeps you up-to-date on the latest Virginia news as well as what’s up at Virginia’s leading conservative blogs.

Finally, but certainly not least, we highly recommend Virginia Tomorrow, another fairly new blog, but not by any neophyte or couch potato critic. Virginia Tomorrow is the creation of Dr. Bob Holsworth, one of the most insightful and fair political commentators in Virginia, or the country for that matter. Quoted far and wide on all matters political, he now has this platform to promulgate his points. He is more than willing to speak to any group and supply his observations, including a couple of presentations at Family Foundation functions. I have seen him at several other events, and he remains even keel for every audience, not matter its slant. “Dr. Bob” is one of the good, fair guys. We hope you visit his site, and the others mentioned here, often.

Thanks to our friends at The Virginia Catholic Conference — who do fantastic work keeping up with federal issues, especially regulatory matters that don’t require Congressional action and therefore aren’t in a big a media spotlight — we have an urgent reminder that the Obama Administration is losing no time in trying to force medical workers of faith into providing services they find objectionable.

On February 27, it announced its intention to remove current regulations, put in place by the Bush Administration late last year, that protect conscience rights in health care. On March 10, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services issued a formal proposal to rescind these regulations, thereby activating a 30-day period for the public to submit comments. 

The National Committee for a Human Life Amendment has devised an Action Alert explaining why the regulations should be retained and providing directions on how to submit comments to HHS (click here). E-mail messages can be sent directly through the NCHLA Action Center. A preset message is provided, to which the sender can add personal comments. 

Please submit your comments before the April 9 deadline! 

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has set up a special Web site with that provides a wealth of information and resources on conscience protection (click here), including a link to the NCHLA Action Center message. We encourage you to visit that site and others to fully arm yourself on the issue.  

Churches are encouraged to display the NCHLA and USCCB links on their Web pages. Highlighting the critical importance of the current conscience regulations, Cardinal Francis George, President of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said:

They are “one part of the range of legal protections for health care workers — for doctors, nurses and others — who have objections in conscience to being involved in abortion and other killing procedures that are against how they live their faith in God.” 

Removing these conscience regulations “would be the first step in moving our country from democracy to despotism.”

The Obama HHS promises to be as destructive as ever toward the unborn. Its secretary-designate, Kathleen Sebelius, a Catholic, was the most pro-abortion-on- demand governor in the country before her nomination. He extremist policy positions prompted Archbishop Raymond L. Burk to call her an “embarrassment” (Catholic News Agency). It will take every possible effort to counter the new adminstration’s pro-abortion initiatives. Pro-life Virginia activists responded in numbers to impress upon the Bush Administration how important these medical professional conscience protections are (see previous commentary). A redoubled effort is required to convince the Obama Administration to retain them.

The United States Department of Health and Human Services last week announced new regulations that protect the right of conscience of pro-life medical professionals (see Washington Post, here). The Family Foundation and the Virginia Catholic Conference urged you to send public comments to HHS this past fall in support of these new rules. Your work, and that of thousands of others, paid off.

The new regulations establish needed clarification and enforcement mechanisms to ensure that medical personnel are not coerced into participating in procedures, such as abortions, that violate their moral, ethical and religious convictions.

Tony Perkins, President of The Family Research Council said:

This is a huge victory for religious freedom and the First Amendment. No one should be forced to have an abortion, and no one should be forced to be an abortionist. These regulations will ensure that conscience protection statutes will be strongly enforced by the government just as other civil rights laws are.  It’s also a victory for the right of patients to choose doctors who agree with their personal beliefs.

Pro-abortion groups, such as Planned Parenthood and NARAL, already are urging the incoming Obama administration to reverse the regulations. 

For several years The Family Foundation has worked to extend Virginia’s current conscience clause protection to pharmacists who are often forced, against their beliefs, to distribute abortifacient chemical drugs like the so-called emergency contraceptive “Plan-B.” Planned Parenthood sees this issue as a major threat to their financial well-being. Remember, for several years, the federal government provided financial supplements to Planned Parenthood’s purchase of Plan-B.

At a time when religious liberty rights are under constant threat and are gradually being removed, this is a tremendous victory for the right of conscience. Despite the cries of radical pro-abortion groups, these new regulations will in no way threaten or diminish real health care. They will simply provide protections for people whose religious convictions forbid them from participating in abortion related services.

The so-called Freedom of Choice Act again is before Congress. This dangerous legislation, called FOCA, would eliminate hundreds of pro-life laws and policies in every state as well as those in federal law. (Read the bills’ summaries and status, sponsors, and other information, by clicking the bill numbers: The Senate bill number is S. 1173; the House bill number is H.R. 1964).

By imposing federal oversight on the states, this legislation would take away your rights to influence your state lawmakers to pass pro-life legislation by making Congress the only and ultimate authority on these critical issues. Hence, the Orwellian misnomer: It neither guarantees freedom or choice. Most assuredly, it limits representative democracy. This again reveals the shaky ground radical pro-abortion forces are on: If Americans overwhelmingly favor abortion on demand, as they claim, why are they afraid of letting citizen legislators and state electorates make those decisions? What’s next, Congress deciding what doctors we can visit? (On second thought, don’t ask.) 

We highly encourage you to contact your U.S. Representative (click here for list) and Virginia’s two U.S. Senators (Jim Webb, here, and John Warner, here) and urge them to defeat these bills. The National Committee for a Human Life Amendment has a good briefing sheet on the bills (click here). Because of the seriousness of this threat to innocent life and our freedoms — for example, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops calls it ”a grave concern” — please forward the information on this blog to as many pro-lifers as you can.

Many thanks to the Virginia Catholic Conference for its work in alerting thousands of Virginians to the dangers to these bills.