The end result of a particular election held this week means the restrictive invoice’s chance of passing is slim to none.
Republicans within the Virginia state legislature have submitted a invoice limiting entry to abortion, even after a particular election earlier this week indicated that the measure has little likelihood of passing.
The invoice was submitted by Rep. Kathy Byron, a Republican member of the Virginia Home of Delegates, and would ban all abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy — a time-frame that abortion rights activists say is dangerously restrictive. Below the invoice, physicians or clinicians who carry out abortions after 15 weeks could be punished with fines as much as $100,000 or with as much as 10 years of imprisonment.
The invoice makes exceptions for rape, incest, or to guard a pregnant particular person’s life.
Final month, Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R), who previously claimed to be a moderate on the issue of abortion, vowed to again extra restrictions on the process, stating that he would “fortunately and gleefully” signal any anti-abortion measures.
Presently, abortion in Virginia is legal up to the third trimester, or round 26 weeks of being pregnant. Restrictions on abortion have been loosened in 2020, when Democrats managed the state legislature and the governor’s workplace.
Abortion rights activists have famous that 15-week abortion bans are especially dangerous as a result of it’s sometimes not identified till later within the second trimester if the fetus has life-threatening situations or if the being pregnant may in any other case hurt the well being of the pregnant particular person.
Though the invoice has been endorsed by Youngkin, it’s unlikely that will probably be handed into legislation, at the least in the interim. With the intention to turn into legislation, the invoice, which was submitted within the Republican-controlled Home of Delegates, can even must cross within the Democratic-controlled state Senate.
Up till this week, it was thought-about considerably doable that the invoice would cross — at the least one Democrat within the Senate had expressed having an “open mind” to the idea of banning abortions previous 15 weeks — however a particular Senate election held on Tuesday expanded the Democrats’ majority, making it far much less doubtless that the invoice will turn into legislation.
Democrat Aaron Rouse, who has stated he’ll “not compromise” on defending abortion rights, narrowly won his race against Republican Kevin Adams this week, flipping a seat that was beforehand held by a Republican. Rouse’s win implies that Democrats could have a 22-18 majority within the Senate.
Due to Rouse’s win, at the least two Democrats must facet with Republicans to ensure that the state’s Republican lieutenant governor to solid the tie-breaking vote — a state of affairs that’s extraordinarily unlikely.
Responding to Youngkin’s State of the Commonwealth speech this week, through which the governor continued to advocate for anti-abortion policies, Rouse stated on Twitter that his election win would assist stop such laws from changing into legislation.
“[Youngkin] is standing behind his agenda to take VA again half a century,” Rouse noted. “Not on my watch!”
