Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli and Mat Staver, dean of Liberty University’s law school, spoke at a rally Wednesday supporting the “personhood” bill making its way through the General Assembly.
They urged a crowd on Capitol Square to contact state senators who will soon vote on House Bill 1, passed by the House of Delegates on Tuesday.
The measure extends fundamental rights claimed in the Declaration of Independence to unborn children, both Cuccinelli and Staver said.
“This personhood bill recognizes a scientific reality. Life begins at conception,” said Cuccinelli, a candidate for governor. “Make sure you talk to your senators. Advocate for this issue.”
Staver told the crowd, “the right to life is the right of all rights. Without the right to life, there are no other rights.”
The bill, officially called House Bill 1, sponsored by Del. Bob Marshall, R-Fairfax, passed the House on a Republican-led, party-line 66-32 vote.
It faces a less certain outcome in the Senate, which is split 20-20 between Republicans and Democrats.
Marshall, Cuccinelli and Staver all said the bill doesn’t directly affect abortion rights, but it could affect future efforts to reverse abortion rights in the courts.
Staver added, “This particular bill is simply a declaration,” like the Declaration of Independence, and “we are endowed by our creator with certain inalienable rights, among which are life.”
In an interview afterward, Staver said he agreed with a point Cuccinelli made during his remarks: HB 1 doesn’t raise any constitutional issues because it’s not a law that requires action.
Marshall presented it to the House as a measure that would strengthen someone’s claim in a civil lawsuit against a person who caused a fetal death in an accident or criminal act.
“Other people may, at some point in the future, seek to try new laws,” Staver said. “They may refer to this bill like some people refer to the Declaration of Independence as a basis for declaring that life begins at the moment of conception.
“But those bills would be completely separate and stand apart from HB 1.”
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