Virginia Bill Would Halt Medicaid Funding For Abortions Of Fetuses That Have ‘No Chance Of Survival After Delivery’
By Amanda Peterson Beadle on Feb 17, 2012 at 1:20 pm
Virginia Del. Mark Cole (R) is sponsoring a bill that would eliminate Medicaid funding for abortions.
The Virginia General Assembly has already passed a bill that requires women to undergo an extremely invasive ultrasound before having an abortion, and a bill that would give full rights to a fetus has cleared the House of Delegates and is waiting for Senate approval.
Now, legislators are continuing their assault on women’s access to abortion with HB 62, a measure that would prevent Medicaid from covering abortions for low-income women when a doctor finds that the fetus “would be born with a gross and totally incapacitating physical deformity or mental deficiency.” A Senate committee approved the House bill Thursday, sending it to the full chamber. The House already passed the bill.
The bill’s sponsor Del. Mark Cole (R) dismissed criticism that the policy could force the state’s poorest women to give birth to mortally deformed fetuses that have no chance of survival after delivery, arguing that religious people shouldn’t have to fund abortions:
more: http://thinkprogress.org/health/2012/02/17/428062/virginia-bill-would-halt-medicaid-funding-for-abortions-of-fetuses-that-have-no-chance-of-survival-after-delivery/?mobile=nc
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