We have one last chance to protect health care freedom of conscience.
We must urge Governor McDonnell to amend HB 1900 and SB 921, bills passed by the General Assembly to conform Virginia to portions of Obamacare which will go into effect January 1, 2014. May 23rd is the last day the Governor can offer amendments, so we must act soon!
Please email Gov. McDonnell and urge him to amend these bills (HB 1900 and SB 921) to prohibit requiring businesses/churches etc. to provide and consumers to purchase HHS mandated abortion morning or week after pills, birth control, (including for minors without parental notice or consent), as well as sterilization operations. Also ask the Governor to prohibit Virginia insurance payments for surgical or drug induced abortions.
If you want to call, you may leave a message for Gov. McDonnell at (804) 786-2211, but please give your name and contact information to the operator and ask for a written reply. Or, you may fax the Governor at (804) 371-6351.
The Governor and Republican House and Senate leaders completely ignored any new legislative efforts to protect preborn children in the 2013 session because they wanted to avoid controversy in an election year. They also refused to hold hearings on my three bills to address the unjust HHS mandates which violate the First Amendment and principles recognized in the Declaration of Independence. And the House of Delegates Republican leadership employed a parliamentary contrivance to avoid a record vote to cut off all state funding of abortion during budget deliberations.
If Gov. McDonnell does not hear from many principled pro-lifers like yourself, he may continue to do nothing to protect our conscience from the HHS Mandate or to prohibit abortion coverage in health exchanges. This is the only legislative opportunity we have to prevent the Obamacare HHS mandate from going into effect on January 1, 2014.
The Governor may respond to Richmond lobby groups and propose weak abortion language as he did in 2011 on HB 2434, a bill that set up a Virginia Health Care Exchange. The Governor’s ostensible abortion insurance prohibition was so broad (allowed funding for alleged rape, alleged incest, and physical illness), I voted “present” rather than vote for it. (See #1 below)
Previously in 2011, my anti-abortion amendment (without exceptions, See #2 below) to Senator Saslaw’s State Health Exchange bill passed the House 56-38. Senator Saslaw struck his bill rather than face a full Senate public vote to accept my amendment to his bill.
Please share this alert. If any lobby group asks you to contact the Governor or Assembly members to support pro-life amendments to HB 1900 or SB 921, ask to see the amendments before you contact lawmakers to ensure the language is not laden with exceptions.
Thank you,
Delegate Bob Marshall
REFERENCES:
1.Governor’s McDonnell’s amendment allowing Abortion insurance coverage: “(a) when the life of the mother is endangered by a physical disorder, physical illness, or physical injury, including a life-endangering physical condition caused by or arising from the pregnancy itself, or (b) when the pregnancy is the result of an alleged act of rape or incest.”
http://leg1.state.va.us/cgi-bin/legp504.exe?111+amd+HB2434AG
2. Marshall 2011 House passed anti-abortion insurance Amendment to (SB1366) “No health plan authorized by the Virginia Exchange may provide abortion coverage services; however, such prohibition shall not (i) prevent an approved health plan from reimbursing the costs of services of a physician and other services incurred in providing medical assistance to preserve the life of a pregnant woman provided that every possible measure shall be taken to preserve the life of the unborn child of the pregnant woman, or (ii) preclude an approved health plan from reimbursing the costs of services incurred in providing medical treatment to address previous fetal demise or intrauterine fetal death.” (
http://leg1.state.va.us/cgi-bin/legp504.exe?111+amd+SB1366AHE)
To see my bills preserving freedom of conscience against the HHS Mandate:
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