The Republican-led Virginia House of Delegates yesterday voted 64-34 to advance a 'personhood' bill, which would give full personhood rights to a fertilized egg at the moment of conception. The action sets the stage for a final House vote on the legislation today. If the House passes the bill, the Senate will review and vote on it.
Del. Bob Marshall, R-Manassas, has proposed House Bill 1 on three separate occasions, including once in 2007 when it failed to pass the House and again in 2011 when it passed in the House but failed in the Senate, which the Democrats then controlled, he said.
Democratic delegates voiced concerns yesterday in a House press release, saying the bill would affect the legality of birth control and other forms of contraception.
The personhood bill would open "families and doctors to a wide variety of criminal and civil lawsuits for health care decisions not only in cases of unwanted pregnancies, but every pregnancy and even miscarriage," Democrats said in the press release.
Marshall, however, said the legislation would not affect birth control or abortion, but instead would change the way courts define a person.
"The legal effect here is [if] a pregnant woman is driving in an intersection and someone runs into her, she can sue for loss of a child," Marshall said. "Under the current code, a mother cannot do that. [The bill] has no direct legal effect on abortion or birth control."
Del. Vivian Watts, D-Fairfax, unsuccessfully fought to include an exception for access to basic birth control in the legislation, Watts spokesperson Deborah Sherman said.
Public Health Prof. Lois Shepherd, also a professor in the Law School, said support of the bill may be a symbolic gesture for delegates who want to display a pro-life stance.
"[The bill] would not really have a practical effect," Shepherd said, since the legislation would not override federal protections for abortion and contraception.
Shepherd said the personhood bill, like previous bills in Virginia and other states mandating ultrasounds or waiting periods for women considering abortions, is part of a broad conservative effort to "incrementally ... chip away at abortion rights."
Personhood initiatives have been voted down recently in other states, including in Mississippi where a ballot initiative failed last November. If Virginia enacts this legislation, it would be the first state to include embryos in the legal definition of personhood.
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