Abortion

Virginia Gives Up on “Egg-as-Person” Bill, For Now

With three days left to bring the bill up, the senate appears content to let it die.

Photo: Karol A. Olson.

Sorry, fertilized eggs, looks like you may be out of luck in Virginia, where a plan to grant full legal rights may be shelved for now.

Via NBC4:

The Washington Examiner reports that Virginia Republicans are expected to let the “personhood” bill die this week. The bill would grant a fetus the same right as a person, a definition pushed by pro-life advocates. The measure was one of many controversial social issues pushed by Republicans in the Virginia legislature in 2012. (These Republicans were also responsible for the now infamous transvaginal ultrasound bill.

The Senate was expected to pass the bill last session, but ultimately voted to push consideration of the legislation to this year’s session.

Now the chairman of the Senate Education and Health Committee isn’t likely to call committee members back to vote on the measure before a Nov. 29 deadline to bring it to the full Senate, effectively killing the bill.

Reporter Perry Stein muses that the disappearance of the bill might signal that the state legislature may be moving away from divisive social issues. Apparently they forgot to tell Bob Marshall, who is proposing that abortion be banned in the case of gender selection—a problem no one has ever provided evidence is an issue in the state, and which many believe is a backdoor attempt to limit a woman’s right to choose.