After the passage of the H.B. 1 “personhood” for fertilized eggs bill by the Virginia House of Delegates yesterday, many people are asking us what they can do to fight back.
H.B. 1, authored by none other than the extreme anti-choice Delegate Bob Marshall, would lay the legal groundwork to ban abortion and attack common forms of contraception in the event that the U.S. Supreme Court overturns or weakens women’s privacy rights as confirmed in Roe v. Wade. H.B. 1 will now move to the state Senate for consideration — and if it passes there too, to the desk of Governor Bob McDonnell.
It’s time to show lawmakers that Virginians can see through this insidious attempt to undermine reproductive rights in Virginia and that we reject its goals of outlawing all abortion and attacking women’s access to common forms of birth control like the pill, emergency contraception and IUDs. It would lay the legal groundwork for more government interference in all pregnancies and all aspects of a woman’s reproductive life and health.
Here are some ways you can take action right now:
- Sign our general petition to lawmakers against H.B. 1 to add your voice to our efforts against this legislation.
- Contact your state senator and urge them to vote against this bill if it it comes to the floor of the Senate. If you need to find out who your state senator is or how to contact them, you can find out on the Virginia General Assembly website. For sample language on what to say, see this post from earlier this week.
- You can also contact your delegate to let them know how you feel about their vote in the full House on H.B 1 and that you’ll remember how they voted in the future. The full list of votes is available here. Thank your delegate if they voted “nay” and let them know you disapprove if they voted “yea.”
Edited to add (2/17/12):
You can directly contact the senators who sit on the Senate Education & Health Committee, where H.B. 1 will be heard and voted on in the Senate as soon as next week. Their names and contact information can be found here.
And of course, you can contact Governor Bob McDonnell and ask him not to sign H.B. 1 if it should pass the Senate and come to his desk.
Pass this information on to your friends and neighbors and ask them to get involved as well!
Do we know when the state Senate will vote on this bill?
You can call it what you want, a fertilized egg,
a zygote, fetus, toddler, whatever, but it’s
still a human life. End of story.
Senator Blevins’s secretary all but ignored me, took no message or my name or address. All she said was “ok”. When I asked if she intended to relay the message to him she said “thank you” and hung up on me. fat lot of good that did me. The Handmaiden’s Tale is looking very, VERY close to reality.
Thank you for taking action and making the call!