Virginia Personhood Bill: State Senate Defeats Bill

In an unexpected move, the Virginia Senate killed the state's personhood bill, a key victory for women's groups seeking to battle the current proposals on reproductive rights.

By a 24-14 vote, the Senate agreed to a motion by Senate Republican Leader Tommy Norment (R-James City County) to push consideration of the bill to next year's legislative session. A coalition of Democrats and Republicans in the tied Senate voted for the motion; six Republican and 18 Democratic senators voted to push consideration of the bill back. Two Democratic senators abstained.

The bill was expected to pass the Senate with Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling (R) providing a tie-breaking vote. Norment said he believed the bill needed more study.

The bill passed a Senate committee, with Republican support, earlier in the day, and it passed the Republican-dominated House of Delegates last week. Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) had indicated that he would sign the bill.

The proposal, sponsored by Delegate Robert Marshall (R), would have granted "personhood" status to unborn children, including embryos. Similar proposals have been defeated in other states, including in a statewide referendum last year in Mississippi.

The bill's defeat comes days after McDonnell and legislative Republicans agreed to amend the bill requiring women to have an ultrasound before receiving an abortion to exclude trans-vaginal ultrasounds on women who do not consent to the practice. The ultrasound bill was passed by the House just after the personhood bill.

The defeat of the personhood bill comes amid a flurry of state-level proposals on reproductive rights, including a proposal in New Hampshire to end the state's mandate that religious organizations provide birth control insurance coverage for employees and the national debate over the Obama administration's requirement that religious organizations provide birth control insurance coverage.

Democratic groups are cheering the personhood bill's defeat.

"This is a huge win for women in the Republican war on a women's right to choose and women's health," said Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee spokeswoman Carolyn Fiddler.

Andy Jenks from NBC News 12 in Virginia tweeted that Sen. Dick Saslaw (D) is in support of the move.

"[Personhood] is on life support, and there ain't a doctor around for 200 miles," Jenks tweeted, quoting Saslaw.

This story has been updated to include the final vote tally.

Comments

[gwbsucs1]

03:02 PM on 02/27/2012

We should reinvent and redefine the seperation of Church and State bill and in that include in a loophole , the seperation of wall street and government as well

[gwbsucs1]

02:52 PM on 02/27/2012

Women these bills have nothing to do with the GOPs attempt at saving the unborn or your right to choose - its clear that each and every thought brought about in these bills theres one thing on their minds and thats sex in general - ya wanna claim the little head leads the way in men , heres your proof - when they write these bills , i'm willin to bet they're salivatin - thats droolin all over it - so by creatin such an invasive proceedure , they can get off on sonogram images of a probe bein thrust inside a woman - man the desk in Richmond GOPs offices must be sticky and the floors under em slimey

[momof5boys]

08:45 PM on 02/28/2012

You are a sick individual.

[gwbsucs1]

12:21 AM on 02/29/2012

I might be sic - but ya have to admit , they're jus might be some truth to this - let me ask you this - which party is the most invasive in your personnal rights ?

[mfaherty]

11:02 PM on 04/13/2013

You are mistaken on many things. To list just one, the article clearly states women would not have to have a trans-vaginal ultra sound. God Bless.

[gwbsucs1]

01:38 PM on 02/27/2012

This is a huge win for women in the Republican war on a women's right to choose and women's health," said Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee spokeswoman Carolyn Fiddler----------------------------good for you ladies - good way to kick some azzzzzzzzzz

[knotsonorml]

09:14 AM on 02/27/2012

The last time Republicans cared about you, you were a fetus.

[momof5boys]

08:50 PM on 02/28/2012

gwbsucs1 - nice 'moniker' - you have some serious issues. You simply cannot generalize the whole Republican party as "power hungry individuals" and "KKK members in disguise". That is defamatory. The People that I see who happen to be Republican are Christian people with good moral values and are trying to improve their part of the world for all people. I am sorry you don't see that and must resort to immature name calling.

[cat09tails]

10:16 AM on 02/25/2012

Join One Million Strong for Women here: http://www.democratsenators.org/o/44/p/dia/action/public/index.sjs?action_KEY=369

[gwbsucs1]

01:44 PM on 02/27/2012

thanks cat , i joined

[Turtleposer]

05:59 PM on 02/24/2012

Rightwingers have been pushing Personhood bills for the past few years now. Would they support the ERA too? Hmm.

[cat09tails]

10:19 AM on 02/25/2012

Funny you should mention that. Can you believe that the same guys who are pushing to make fertilized eggs people are currently sitting on ERA ratification for Virginia?

It passed our state congress and now the Virginia Delegates have sat on it. So let them know how disgusting that is: write to our state speaker William J Howell.

[cat09tails]

10:24 AM on 02/25/2012

Actually, the Virginia House of Delegates is currently sitting on ERA Ratification. Can you believe that? They are trying to make fertilized eggs people and yet they won't ratify the ERA. Let them know how you feel by writing the speaker of the house! The Virginia Senate already passed it on to the delegates.

[cat09tails]

10:29 AM on 02/25/2012

whoops, sorry- comments weren't showing up.

[gwbsucs1]

01:53 PM on 02/27/2012

ya , that doesn't surpirise me cat - for whatever reason they think they can get away with this - it will always be shortlived , in the state which claims victory over tyranny , apparently Va dumbos have no clue that they are tyranny , I'd be willin to bet they haven't a clue of what it means

[scottsdalebubbe]

05:57 PM on 02/24/2012

A glimmer of sanity in an insane legislative majority.

[Dancenownzen]

04:18 PM on 02/24/2012

“women are not people
gays are not people
muslims are not people
mexicans are not people

they have a long list of who are NOT PEOPLE but a short one of who are people”

[gwbsucs1]

01:55 PM on 02/27/2012

ya embryo's and corporations , now isn't that azzway backwards !!

[Dancenownzen]

04:13 PM on 02/24/2012

If an embryo would be considered a person and entitled to all the rights of anyone else, could you put a pregnant woman in jail? Would the fetus have to be read their Miranda rights before taking the mother into custody? Would the embryo immediately become a ward of the state upon conception giving the state the right to oversee it's care? Would the rape of a pregnant woman at any point after conception also be considered a sexual crime against a minor? If the sex was consensual, would the woman have to register as a sex offender?

I hope someone asks these questions when the bill comes up again. These states may be opening up a can of worms that could set legal precedents that no one wants to deal with. Sometimes getting your way can come back to bite you.

[KnightlyScribe]

04:17 PM on 02/24/2012

Exactly!!

[cat09tails]

10:15 AM on 02/25/2012

That's exactly why they killed it- because we started speaking out and the legislators got calls from constitutional lawyers telling them what a monumental mistake they were making.

I think what really scared them is asking what would happen if two Mexican nationals were on vacation in Virginia, had sex, and went back home. The woman finds out she's pregnant and voila! A Virginian citizen is now on board :)

[KnightlyScribe]

04:12 PM on 02/24/2012

If, in fact, this absurd bill had passed, then, to follow its logic, a woman could be charged with murder (or manslaughter) if she, say, drank too much and ended up killing the fetus. What about a manslaughter charge for a woman who takes a tumble down a flight of stairs and the fetus dies? Or...how about negligence if it could be proven that the child would be born with ADD because she smoked while pregnant?

Just another example of absurd - no, stupid - some of us are.

[PELAGIUS2]

04:59 PM on 02/25/2012

It would certainly solve the unemployment problem and bust the budget even more. Every pregnant woman would have to be assigned a monitor to make sure she didn't do anything that would endanger the new "citizen" before it was born. After that the kid is on their own.

The same, sorry don't have an adequate description, *********'s don't give a damn whether the kid is born into a world where there's enough safe food, water or air to provide decent life. Rick Santorum wants to gut public schools, for Ron Paul property rights trump civil rights, Mitt's twirlting worse than a weather vane in a hurricane, Newt thinks kids should be janitors and none of them have said squat about decent jobs to raise these kids on, except do away with all the regulations that attempt to protect said air, water and food. Way to go 'pubs, way to go.

[gwbsucs1]

02:08 PM on 02/27/2012

in 4 words you summed up the republican party----- "don't give a damn "

[KnightlyScribe]

05:38 AM on 02/29/2012

Too funny and soooo true!

[gwbsucs1]

02:06 PM on 02/27/2012

or how bout the child just bein still born for whatever reasons unfathomable , then 20/20 and 48 hours would have a field day and many many shows for years to come providing information about women who wrongly convicted of those crimes - whats next , first degree murder for gettin an abortion , if the woman ever stated that she never wanted kids at any point in their life , then they could charge her with premeditated and she could get the death penalty - geez , how ugly could this get !!

[KnightlyScribe]

05:38 AM on 02/29/2012

Exactly@!

[Dancenownzen]

04:07 PM on 02/24/2012

“Virginia has become a laughing stock and the POSTER CHILD for what the TEAPUBLICANS think this country should look like in the future and WE THE MAJORITY won't stand for America under a CONstitution becoming TEABAGISTAN under a CHRISTitution !!!

OBAMA 2012

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[btown]

03:48 PM on 02/24/2012

With all of the real issues this country is facing, THIS is what Virginia wants to spend taxpayer money on?

BTW, this isn't a "victory for womens groups" battling this issue as stated in the article. This is and will be an all out assault on women in the coming year. They will dig deep for evidence showing the need for that type of ultrasound, and, by that time, the media will have time to spin it into a good thing for women.

The Gov of Virigina is a mysogynist. I'd call him ignorant, but that gives him a social pass for bad behavior.

[gwbsucs1]

02:23 PM on 02/27/2012

i din't vote for him , i have a right to complain - those who did vote for him , should be ashamed of yourselves , anyone , who din't vote for him could have told you this was going to happen - they also had a bill on the table that could have invasive towards anyone who posseses a computer in the state , attemptin to drum up support for this bill - if it had passed it would have allowed state police to monitor all computers thru ISP addresses , intended to catch those who possess "child porn" , but it would have also addressed anyone who possessed porn on any level on their computer and that would have been disastrous to thousands of computer users in the state - fortuantely they realized that would have been to invasive and most likely would have caught many of their own constituents up into thier little stings - so the bill never made it another step , citing , they didn't have enough tech data to go further - but the attorney general still has the bill on his desk and if ya ever saw this guy on TV , he's about as retarded as they come - at the time they claimed thaey had data on over 40,000 computers in the state that they claimed had" illegal porn" on their computers - not "child porn" but porn in general --

[gwbsucs1]

02:23 PM on 02/27/2012

cont---------don't get me wrong , I'm totally against "child porn" - but if they're going to restrict porn in general from bein on your "home" computer , they better close down all those bookstores that contain porn as well and demand that any magazine that possesses naked women be banned from the state , now wee know thats not going to happen - since so many of the recipients are republicans !!

[btown]

10:40 PM on 02/27/2012

huh?

[Tree S-B]

02:26 PM on 02/24/2012

OK. But pushing this bill to the next legislative session is hardly "killing" it, is it?

[Turtleposer]

06:00 PM on 02/24/2012

That's true, I'm sure it'll come up again & again.

[gwbsucs1]

02:29 PM on 02/27/2012

it'll die , actually I think the democrats are tryin to get it on the ballot - then we'll see what the people think of this legislation , as we will also see what the people think of our legislators bein so invasive in our lives in general - people don't like bein told what they can and can't do - and coming from the party of small government creating more of an invasive government , clearly shows the hypocrits they are - I deem em the opposite party , whatever they say , they are for the opposite - something I haven't endured in 15 years since my step son was 10 years old , and claimed it was opposite day , when everything he did was the opposite of what he said - now I had a lot of fun with him when we played that game - this game , not so much "fun"

[Kingpleasure]

01:37 PM on 02/24/2012

It's time for women to ban together and have a march on Washington in the same vein as the March on Washington many years ago in the 1960's. This is a war on women. It's time to organize. Women from every state need to come make the sacrifice, take off work, leave the husband with the kids, and let's get out there and march. We need to organize a National consolidated protest and soon. Get speakers who will speak up. I'd like to see speakers from every arena from entertainers to comedians, artists, regular everyday women. Make it an all day event. Women camp out in the mall area. I would be there if this thing could be organized. We want all women speakers We want music, rallies. It's time for the women to march on Washington. WOBOS 2012 (Women.. Our... Bodies..Our Say)

[Dancenownzen]

04:10 PM on 02/24/2012

the real march needs to be a bit broader
WOMEN
GAYS
LATINO'S
NON CHRISTIANS

all need to ban TOGETHER and march

The assault is on all minorities in various ways and we have much more power when we ALL march together in solidarity and support one another

[Kingpleasure]

04:21 PM on 02/24/2012

While I agree, a march needs to have a singular focus otherwise it becomes unorganized with everyone pushing their agenda. That's a recipe for failure. However when one minority fights that opens the door for others to push through their issues, but they don't all need to happen at the same time. Too many voices all trying to be heard at once ends up with 'no voice being heard'. It's not about 'minorities in this instance. It's about women's bodies and men trying to control it. In this case, it is about WOMEN. Again, once again, whenever women try to take a stand, her issues get shoveled into a big pile. No... in this case it's women's bodies that is the prevailing issue that should be the focus.

[PELAGIUS2]

05:02 PM on 02/25/2012

Hey, not all Christians agree with this sorry group of ________ (fill in the blanks). Some "men" never get over the fact that if it wasn't for a woman they wouldn't be here.

[nevernot]

12:56 PM on 02/24/2012

If this passed would I be a sex offender for showing my bits and pieces to my wifes unborn child while having sex with her? Yet another unintended consequence of this poorly thought out bill....

[StopMakingSense2]

01:42 PM on 02/24/2012

If republicans are pushing it you can count on it not being thought out. If they were artists all they would draw is stick people!

[gwbsucs1]

02:46 PM on 02/27/2012

yup and ya might even count on em bein present while your doin it - thats the next bill - the perverted sex act bill - ya better be doin it missionary position , thats 10 years if they video tape it and the governor doesn't get off