What's at stake on Nov. 8: Women and Families

November 7, 2011

If radical conservatives take over Virginia's State Senate tomorrow, at the top of their agenda will be further restricting the rights of women and effectively banning abortion. Even without control of the Senate, they were able to push through new regulations that will close many of Virginia's women's health centers. We can also expect to see items like Mississippi's "personhood" amendment, which would grant legal rights to all fertilized eggs. Virginia's Bob Marshall has already proposed similar legislation, which overwhelming passed the House of Delegates and was only stopped by the State Senate. Without leadership in the State Senate that values women and families, there will be no block to the Tea Party's dangerous and intrusive agenda.

Progressive Point: The decision to terminate a pregnancy is a difficult one best left to a woman, her family and her faith--not radical bureaucrats in Richmond. Governor McDonnell McDonnell and Tea Party politicians want smaller government except when it comes to telling a woman what decisions she should make with her body. They want less family planning services and comprehensive sexual education programs in Virginia, but they want more government when it comes to invasive regulations on choices that should only be between a woman, her family and her faith.  McDonnell and his Tea Party allies go too far in their efforts to involve themselves in personal decisions and end access to women's health centers across Virginia. No government should have the right to control a woman's body or over our families' private decisions. We need our representatives to focus on jobs and fixing our economy, not making a personal decision a political issue.

Get the Facts:

"The Virginia Senate has been a cemetery for the General Assembly's most conservative legislation for more than a decade. But if Republicans gain three or more Senate seats in next month's decisive legislative elections, conservatives would consolidate their hold on Virginia government and turn state policy hard to the right... The House's most prolific author of anti-abortion bills, Del. Robert G. Marshall, R-Prince William, said he would celebrate a conservative Senate takeover. Among the bills he might bring back is one that would effectively end abortion by granting legal rights of personhood to fetuses... Other bills that were dead on arrival before the current Senate could make victorious encores in a Senate run from the right. They would: -- Make it a crime for a woman to cause her own miscarriage or to coerce a young woman into having an abortion. -- Require doctors to offer to anesthetize a fetus before performing an abortion." (Virginia Pilot)

Tweet it: What's at stake on Nov. 8: Women and Families http://bit.ly/uhy6gN via @ProgressVA

Share on Facebook

Forward to a Friend via email