Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, March 8, 1994 TAG: 9403080200
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By WARREN FISKE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
Amid frantic parliamentary maneuvering Monday, the Senate Education and Health Committee voted 8-7 to defeat the legislation, the eighth time in the past nine years it has killed the measure.
Anticipating the defeat, anti-abortion lawmakers had made plans to attach the parental notification requirement to a bill on family courts that was before the friendlier Senate Courts of Justice Committee.
But the chairman of that panel - Sen. Edward Holland, D-Arlington - refused to bring the family court bill up for a vote. Monday was the final day for committee meetings this winter and Holland's pocket veto may have eliminated abortion opponents' last hope for the parental notification bill this year.
``I don't know what else I can do,'' said Sen. Mark Earley, R-Chesapeake. ``I'm running out of options.''
Earley did not rule out making a long-shot effort to resurrect the legislation this week by asking the full Senate to take it up for immediate vote and to discharge the Education and Health Committee from oversight of the bill.
Requests to override committees are rarely successful, however. Many senators, who might otherwise be for a bill, regard the tactic as a breach of legislative decorum.
The bill, which passed the House earlier, would have required physicians to notify parents at least 24 hours before ending the pregnancy of girls younger than 18. Teens from abusive homes or who were afraid to tell their parents could bypass the requirement by receiving permission for an abortion from a judge.
Supporters of the legislation believed that if they could get the bill past the hostile committee, it would be approved on the Senate floor. In 1992, backers were able to bypass the panel and the legislation was approved by the Senate 23-17, only to be vetoed by then-Gov. Douglas Wilder. This year, Gov. George Allen promised to sign a parental notification bill should it reach his desk.
Republicans tried to make the bill more palatable by offering an amendment that would allow physicians to notify uncles, aunts, grandparents and siblings over 21 instead of parents. But Democrats killed the bill by approving an amendment that would subject any physician who violated the law to a maximum 10-year jail sentence.
That provision changed the vote of Sen. Clarence Holland, D-Virginia Beach, a doctor who in the past had supported notification measures. ``I cannot support a felony penalty for a physician who may unwittingly break the law,'' he said.
Democrats on the panel voted 8-2 against the measure. Republicans, including Sen. Brandon Bell, R-Roanoke County, voted 5-0 for it.
Andrea Sexton, spokeswoman for the Virginia Society for Human Life's Roanoke region, said after the vote that ``the same handful of people [on the Senate committee] are once again blocking the will of the people. This means another year will go by with young girls not receiving the parental support and wisdom they deserve when facing this significant event in their lives.''
David Nova, spokesman for Planned Parenthood of the Blue Ridge, was ``cautiously optimistic'' that the bill had been killed for the legislative session. ``This was a bad bill, a punitive bill that left minors few options and could have put a doctor in jail for up to 10 years,'' he said. ``This is not the type of bill that Virginians want.''
Staff writer Cody Lowe and The Associated Press contributed information to this story.
Keywords:
GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1994
by CNB