In a momentous about-face, the Virginia Senate voted 24-14 to send the so-called “personhood bill” back to the Senate Education and Health Committee.
Sen. Richard Saslaw (D-Fairfax) made the motion to send the bill back to committee while the majority leader in the Senate, Thomas K. Norment (R-James City) stated that the bill needed to be further examined. Sen. Norment seems to have forgotten his party’s initial tide of enthusiasm for the personhood bill.
The bill stated that “unborn children at every stage of development enjoy all the rights, privileges, and immunities available to other persons, citizens, and residents of the commonwealth, subject only to the laws and constitutions of Virginia and the United States, precedents of the United States Supreme Court, and provisions to the contrary in the statutes of the commonwealth.”
While the bill has been effectively killed for this year’s session of the General Assembly, Virginia Republicans will continue to push their absurd social legislation unless they are ousted from political office.
Kicking Republicans out of office may be no easy task in Virginia. But the VA GOP has made a number of mistakes in the past few weeks alone, assuming that the majority of Virginians are as skewed as they are on social issues. Perhaps in the weeks ahead the GOP will continue making foolhardy political gaffes that will leave the door open for their removal. One can only hope.
If not, expect similar legislation to appear next session, only in subtler and perhaps somewhat less ludicrous language.
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