THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, February 14, 1996 TAG: 9602140442
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A9 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ROBERT LITTLE AND DAVID M. POOLE, STAFF WRITERS
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium: 79 lines
The Senate voted Tuesday to treat any killing of an unborn child - except legal abortion - as a first-degree murder, a step toward overturning a precedent that has been part of Virginia law since British rule.
In the House of Delegates, lawmakers voted to prohibit doctors from performing abortions on minors without first notifying their parents.
Republican Gov. George F. Allen said he supports both measures, which represent a broad move toward granting rights to the unborn. Both proposals still need approval by the opposite chambers.
But abortion rights advocates pledged a sharp fight in the final weeks of the 1996 General Assembly session.
``Thank God we have a bicameral legislature,'' said Sen. Richard L. Saslaw, D-Fairfax, who voted against the Senate measure.
The Senate bill, sponsored by Sen. Mark L. Earley, R-Chesapeake, would make the premeditated killing of a viable fetus a first-degree murder. The courts would determine whether a fetus is viable, a definition that typically means any pregnancy beyond its 21st or 22nd week.
If the bill becomes law, the killer of a pregnant woman could be charged with two murders. Attackers who cause their victims to miscarry could be charged as murderers. The measure specifically excludes legal abortions.
Sen. John S. Edwards, D-Roanoke, tried unsuccessfully to soften the language in the bill, arguing that ``it goes down that slippery slope of calling a fetus a person.''
Proponents of abortion rights resisted the measure because it grants unborn children standing in the law for the first time. That would change a precedent established by British common law that the law protects only people outside the womb.
The measure passed the chamber 31-9, a margin wider than most expected. Many legislators said they viewed the bill as a protection of women's physical and emotional health, not an abortion issue.
``We face the appalling possibility that unless this bill becomes law, an assault on a woman that kills her fetus would only be punishable as an assault on a woman,'' said Sen. Joseph V. Gartlan Jr., D-Fairfax, a pro-choice legislator who voted for the bill.
``It's a good bill,'' Allen later told a reporter. ``Normal people are sickened by the thought of not only injury to the mother, but that an innocent child also has been killed.''
Later in the day, the House voted 71-27 to approve the strongest parental notification bill to clear the chamber in years. It would require notifying the parents or guardians of anyone younger than 18 who wants to have an abortion. Judges and doctors could bypass the requirement in some situations.
The House stripped a provision that would have allowed a physician to notify a young woman's grandparent or adult sibling. The vote was 55 to 43.
Richmond Del. Anne ``Panny'' Rhodes said that some young women from dysfunctional or abusive homes would be at risk if they told their parents.
``Making a statement that parents are loving and special does not make it so,'' Rhodes said.
But Norfolk Del. Thelma Drake urged lawmakers to consider the implications of legislating parents out of the picture.
``I would not want my daughter facing this alone, both from a physical and emotional standpoint,'' Drake said.
Parental notification faces its toughest haul in the Senate, where a similar proposal was defeated in committee earlier this year. But supporters, buoyed by the unexpectedly wide support in the House, will attempt to bypass the committee and bring the matter before the full Senate if necessary.
Allen, who two years ago vetoed a weaker parental notification bill, said he would sign the measure that passed the House.
``It's a pure notification bill, not a sibling notification bill,'' he said. MEMO: Staff writer Warren Fiske contributed to this report.
KEYWORDS: GENERAL ASSEMBLY FETUS ABORTION MURDER LAW BILL by CNB