Stop the War on Women and Get Back to Work

February 22, 2012

This morning, "A coalition of grassroots organizations supporting women's health delivered 33,030 petitions to Governor McDonnell Wednesday morning, opposing bills that insert the government into women's personal, private medical decisions. Virginians from across the Commonwealth have expressed their disappointment and outrage at bills including HB 1 ('personhood' bill), which defines a fertilized egg as a person and could outlaw abortion under all circumstances and restrict women's access to birth control, and HB 462 and SB 484, which would force the vast majority of women seeking to terminate their pregnancies to submit to a transvaginal ultrasound whether or not she wants one. ProgressVA, Planned Parenthood Advocates of Virginia, NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia, and Virginia New Majority organized the petition drive.

Progressive Point: Thousands of women and men from across the Commonwealth have spoken and this conservative war on women must stop. We sent our representatives to Richmond to focus on making our lives better: creating jobs, improving our schools, and fixing our roads. Instead, they've spent their time attacking Virginia families and interfering in women's private medical decisions with horribly invasive and medically unnecessary measures.

To many legislators in Richmond, these bills are political. But to women and families across our Commonwealth, they are very personal and frightening. Our message today is clear: stop the attacks on women's health. Stop interfering in personal, private medical decisions that should be left to a woman, her family, and her doctor. Our representatives need to get back to work.

• The personhood Del. Bob Marshall has filed would "effectively criminalize birth control and in vitro fertilization, in addition to abortion in all cases." (ThinkProgress, November 22, 2011)


• Conservative legislation in Richmond would require women seeking to have an abortion to undergo an ultrasound, be given an opportunity to view it, and then keep it in the their medical file at the facility. "The legislation is a priority for social conservatives and has support from Gov. Bob McDonnell, who called it an 'appropriate measure' during a morning radio interview." (Virginian-Pilot, February 1, 2012)

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