Abortion bills voted down in Senate committee

RICHMOND — Abortion-related bills sponsored by two Lynchburg-area legislators were killed in a state Senate committee Thursday on identical 11-4 votes.

One of the defeated measures, sponsored by Del. Kathy Byron, R-Campbell County, would have given a woman having an abortion the opportunity to view an ultrasound image before the procedure.

The other bill, sponsored by Del. Ben Cline, R-Rockbridge, would have allowed a woman to choose whether to anesthetize the fetus before the abortion procedure — and it led to conflicting opinions from two doctors about how early a fetus can feel pain.

Similar versions of each bill were killed by the Senate Education and Health Committee last year, on 10-5 votes with Democrats prevailing.

“I don’t have much doubt about the outcome,” Byron said as she stepped to the microphone to present HB 2579 to the same committee.

The bill would require that the ultrasound be performed on the day of an abortion procedure, and that the woman be offered a chance to see the resulting image. Last year’s measure would have required the ultrasound to be done 24 hours in advance of the procedure.

Byron said she had listened to people who told her some women would be intimidated by the offer to view the image. Byron said intimidation “comes from (the) decision you’re about to make and what is going to be done.”

Witnesses who supported Byron’s bill represented the Virginia Catholic Conference, the Virginia Society for Human Life, the Family Foundation and Dr. John Kuta, a Richmond doctor who is a radiologist.

Opposing the bill were spokeswomen for Planned Parenthood, the ACLU, the National Organization of Women, the NARAL pro-choice group, the Virginia Society of Anesthesiologists, and the Medical Society of Virginia.

The Medical Society said it doesn’t take a position on pro-life issues, but it does oppose legislation that would tell doctors how to practice medicine.

Byron said after the hearing that she would continue working on the legislation, including measures that would establish medical procedures for abortions.

“It took 17 years to get parental notification passed,” Byron said, referring to a law that parents or an adult relative be consulted about a teenager’s abortion request.

“Change comes through elections and from situations that change people’s decisions on certain bills,” Byron said.

Cline’s HB 2634 would have required doctors to offer to anesthetize a fetus prior to abortion and to in-form the woman that a fetus at 20 gestational weeks “has the physical structures necessary to feel pain.”

Sen. Ralph Northam, D-Norfolk, a committee member who is also a pediatric physician, questioned Cline about the reference to “physical structures.”

Cline answered, “I believe those are nerve structures.”

Northam cut in: “Let me help you.”

“Thanks, Doctor,” Cline said.

Northam described how parts of the brain structure are in place at 20 weeks, but the nerves that carry pain messages are not yet adequately developed.

Kutka, the same radiologist who testified in support of Byron’s bill, disagreed with Northam.

“At 20 weeks, the nerves do actually feel pain,” Kutka said. “The fetus has been shown to move away from noxious stimuli, and not just move.”

After the committee voted the bill down, its chairman, Sen. Edward Houck, D-Fredericksburg, congratu-lated the audience and witnesses on their presentations.

“It has not been so long ago, when we had these bills, that things got rather tense,” Houck said. “I think the way everybody conducted themselves is a real tribute to having passion on this topic and being able to express it in the right way.”