CNS Briefs

General Assembly wrap up

Panels OK bill making feticide a felony

Two committees in the Virginia
House of Delegates have endorsed a
bill that would make killing a fetus
a felony.

After three readings, House Bill 1126
passed in the House and is now being
communicated to the Senate.

HB 1126, sponsored by Delegate
S. Chris Jones, R-Suffolk, states that
“any person, including the pregnant
female, who administers to or causes
to be taken by a pregnant female any
drug or other thing or uses means with
intent to destroy her unborn child or
to produce abortion or miscarriage and
thereby destroys such child or produces
such abortion or miscarriage is guilty
of a Class 4 felony.”

Jones introduced a similar measure
in 2007, but it failed in the House
Courts of Justice Committee. However,
on Feb. 1, 2008, the Courts of Justice
Committee voted 18-4 in favor of HB
1126.

One week later, the bill was approved
23-1 by the House Appropriations Committee.
At this point, Jones said he was
“optimistic that it (would) make it to
the floor this year and that we should
be able to get it to the Senate.”

Sen. Mamie Locke, D-Hampton, is
unsure about how HB 1126 will be
received in the Senate.

“I don’t know what I’ll do once it
gets over on our side,” Locke said. “But
we’ll see if it makes it in.”

Brief by Mary Boyd

Senate panel keeps HPV requirement in place

A Senate committee has killed a bill
that would have eliminated the requirement
for girls entering the sixth grade
to receive the human papillomavirus
vaccine.

The bill’s patron, Sen. Ken T. Cuccinelli,
R-Fairfax, was disappointed,
saying the decision was made simply
to “score political points.”

“Unfortunately, they had a blind
desire to appeal to their political base
and didn’t hear the rationality of the
argument,” Cuccinelli said.

Experts say the vaccination, known
as Gardasil, protects against HPV, a
sexually transmitted disease that causes
70 percent of all cervical cancer cases
and 90 percent of all genital herpes
cases.

In 2007, the General Assembly
passed a law sponsored by Delegate
Phillip A. Hamilton, R-Newport News,
requiring girls to get the vaccine before
entering the sixth grade. Virginia is
one of 17 states that have passed such
legislation.

Cuccinelli said the requirement is
unnecessary and could be harmful
to young girls. He thinks giving the
vaccine to sixth-graders is pointless,
because the vaccine lasts only five
years and the average age for women
to contract HPV is 32 to 35.

The vaccine is administered by a series
of three injections over a six-month
period. The first dose is required of all
girls before entering the sixth grade.
However, there is a way to opt out.

Gov. Tim Kaine amended the law,
allowing parents to exempt their
children from receiving the vaccination.
The only requirement is that parents
must review materials approved by the
Board of Medicine describing the link
between HPV and cervical cancer before
refusing the inoculation.

Brief by Stacy Tyler

Abortion bill killed by Senate committee

An abortion bill was killed Thursday
in a Senate committee meeting, stirring
up tension on both sides of the General
Assembly.

Senate Bill 437, sponsored by Sen.
Jill Vogel, R-Winchester, would have
required any abortion clinic that
performs more than 25 first-trimester
abortions a year “to be licensed and to
comply with the requirements currently
in place for ambulatory surgery centers
except the requirement for a certificate
of public need.”

Vogel said her main concern when
submitting the bill was women’s health
and not the issue of abortion.

“This is not an abortion bill and it
is not about shutting down abortion
clinics,” said Vogel, standing before
the committee.

Vogel cited the lack of reporting
standards and emergency equipment
as her main concern about abortion
clinics.

“We believe it’s a very reasonable
desire to want to make sure that
medical facilities like abortion clinics
are regulated to a degree that is the
safest and healthiest degree possible,”
said Chris Freund, vice president of
the Family Foundation, in a telephone
interview after the meeting. “And
right now, abortion clinics are not
(appropriately regulated). And we just
want to make sure that the standards
are improved.”

Freund said while abortion clinics
are subjected to the same regulations
that govern doctors’ offices, those
regulations do not cover every incident
that could occur during an abortion
procedure.

Brief by Alex Bahr