Dem bill in Virginia would loosen restrictions on late-term abortions

Source: The Hill | January 30, 2019 | Chris Mills Rodrigo

A Democratic-backed bill proposed in Virginia’s state legislature that would loosen restrictions on late-term abortions has sparked major conservative backlash this week.

The legislation would eliminate the requirement that abortions in the second trimester of pregnancy occur at state-licensed hospitals and would require only one doctor to determine if a pregnancy threatens the woman’s life or health to allow abortions in the third trimester.

Under current Virginia law a doctor and two consulting physicians are needed to make that determination.

The bill is unlikely to pass given Republicans control the House of Delegates, and was tabled on Monday.

But a video clip of Delegate Kathy Tran (D) defending her proposed bill has since gone viral.

In the video, Virginia state House Majority Leader Todd Gilbert (R) questioned Tran about when an abortion would be permissible. 

“Where it’s obvious that a woman is about to give birth … she has physical signs that she is about to give birth would that still be a point at which she could request an abortion if she was so certified? If she’s dilating?” Gilbert asked.

“Mr. Chairman, that would be a decision that the doctor, the physician, and the woman would make at that point,” Tran responded.

“I understand that,” Gilbert said. “I’m asking if your bill allows that.”

“My bill would allow that, yes,” she says.

The video had been shared over a million and half times by Wednesday morning.

Former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley shared the video clip on Twitter, saying it “literally makes me sick to my stomach.”

Tran, who deleted her Twitter account soon after the criticism began, released a statement Wednesday about the bill urging lawmakers to “trust women to make their own healthcare decisions.”

………

In an interview with local radio station WTOP on Wednesday morning, Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam (D) said the situation had been “really blown out of proportion.”

“We want the government to not be involved in these types of decisions,” he said. “We want the decisions to be made by the mothers and their providers.”

Several Republicans blasted Northam over another portion of the interview, when he discusses abortions in the third trimester.

When asked about third trimester abortions specifically, the governor said, “If a mother is in labor…the infant would be delivered.”

“The infant would be kept comfortable,” he continued. “The infant would be resuscitated if that’s what the mother and the family desired, and then a discussion would ensue between the physicians and mother.”

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