Dear Fellow Patriots,
The Virginia House of Delegates under Republican leadership has refused to allow my anti-HHS Mandate bills to be heard in Committee, declining to listen to citizens concerned about the Obama Administration mandating abortion pills and birth control (even for ten year olds without parental notice or consent) as well as sterilization operations in every health insurance program!
The Republican leadership of the House of Delegates is content to let stand this trampling of our First Amendment rights of conscience and the coercion of business owners to supply morally objectionable “services.”
HB 1314 protects employers from being forced to comply with the HHS mandate.
HB 1315 protects individuals who buy their own health insurance, from being forced to buy a HHS-mandate compliant policy.
HB 1417 provides that Virginia is not obligated to provide abortion pills, sterilizations, and birth control drugs and devices to its employees.
House Commerce and Labor Committee Chairman, Terry Kilgore (R-Wise County) told me this past Wednesday that he would not call up my bills for a hearing because he did not have to. I informed him that such a decision, which could only be made with the agreement of the leadership, would disturb many Virginians. I have collected nearly 5,000 names on petitions (online and paper) in support of these bills. I am not aware of any other legislation with such widespread support.
The following bills were heard in committee, voted on and passed by the House of Delegates are apparently more important to Republican leaders than protecting our conscience rights:
- HB 1473 exempts youth athletics food sales from restaurant regulations;
- HB 1474, 1536 and 2226 authorizes certain localities to require grass and weed cutting;
- HB 1514 says the Town of Wachapreague may regulate golf carts on its public roads;
- HN 1825 changes the time period for obtaining a duck blind;
- HB 2069 authorizes the state Forrester to sell seedlings to private entities;
- HB 2105 defines Virginia junkyards to comply with federal regulations;
- HB 2220 designates Bannister River as part of the Virginia Scenic River System.
In the face of the most widespread, systematic, religious persecution of believers in United States history by federal authorities, the legislatures of Arizona and Missouri in 2012 enacted laws similar to my bills challenging Obamacare’s HHS Mandate to shield its citizens and businesses from the abortion pill, sterilization and birth control mandate. Missouri’s legislature even overrode a governor’s veto.
President Obama’s actions threaten to shut religious charities, adoption agencies, schools, universities and hospitals because of massive and unprecedented fines to force compliance with an unjust policy which Congress never directly voted on. Yet, Republican leaders in the Virginia House of Delegates will speak no evil, hear no evil, see no evil of Obama’s policy, or even allow lawmakers to present legislation to counter The Obama Administration in the General Assembly’s hearing rooms because of fear of raising “Social Issues.”
If you are dissatisfied with this treatment, please contact the following members of the Republican Leadership to express your concern and ask them to protect the conscience rights of Virginians just as Arizona and Missouri have done:
TALKING POINTS FOR CALLS AND EMAILS:
- President Obama’s HHS mandate forces businesses and individuals to provide and purchase birth control, early abortion pills and sterilizations or face fines of $100 per day, or $2000 per year per employee, even if against one’s conscience.
- The Founders proclaimed our First Amendment recognizing religious freedom as a natural right that cannot be infringed upon by government. The HHS mandate violates religious liberty.
- Arizona and Missouri already passed laws in 2012 countering the HHS Mandate. Missouri’s legislature overrode their Governor .
- A Dean at Catholic University Law School, and former U.S. Civil Rights Commissioner under Reagan, and another attorney who beat Barack Obama in a First Amendment Case in the U.S. Supreme Court were among those who helped draft the bills. Dean Mathew Staver of Liberty University Law School in Lynchburg supports my bills.
CEO David Green of Hobby Lobby has 500+ craft stores (4 in Virginia) and 22,000 employees. He faces fines of $1.3 million per day for refusing to comply with the HHS Mandate. Forty-plus lawsuits have been filed to challenge this mandate, yet Congress has not passed a law to defund or stop it. States must step up, in the protection of the 10th Amendment, to protect its citizens.
Few people take the time to communicate with their elected representatives at the state level, so your effort will make an impact. Please ask a friend or two to join this effort!
Click here to find your Delegate or Senator.
If your delegate is on the Commerce and Labor Committee, (see below) please urge them to support passage of these bills to the House floor.
Thank you for your dilgence and help in protecting our religious freedom.
Sincerely,
Delegate Bob Marshall
