‘Partial-Birth’ Abortion Ban Is OKd in Virginia

Virginia lawmakers approved a bill Thursday that would revive a ban on the procedure opponents call “partial-birth” abortion and make the state the first to outlaw such abortions since the U.S. Supreme Court struck down bans adopted by 31 states.

The bill would make it illegal for doctors to perform “medically induced infanticide.” A doctor who violates the ban could face up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $100,000.

The measure would allow an exception to protect a pregnant woman’s life or to prevent “substantial or irreversible impairment of a major bodily function.” Virginia’s first prohibition of such abortions, passed in 1998, included no health exception for the woman.

The measure passed the state Senate on Thursday, 26 to 12. It passed the House last month, 75 to 25, and now goes to Gov. Mark Warner, who has said he would sign a ban on midterm abortions as long as it would withstand legal scrutiny.

Ellen Qualls, the governor’s spokeswoman, said Warner is reviewing the bill.

The bill’s passage represents the clearest victory of the legislative session for abortion opponents. The Senate defeated a bill passed by the more conservative House that would have required girls to receive a parent’s written consent for an abortion. The senators also rejected a House-backed bill that would have introduced a charge of killing or harming a fetus into criminal law.

The abortion measure passed Thursday would punish anyone who “deliberately and intentionally performs either the delivery of a living fetus or a substantial portion thereof . . . for the purpose of performing a subprocedure intended to kill the fetus.”

The type of abortion the bill would ban is most common in the second trimester of pregnancy. About 90% of abortions take place in the first trimester. Advocates and opponents of the bill say the procedure it bans is rarely used.

Bans of the procedure have been a flash point in the political debate over abortion since the Supreme Court gave states some latitude a decade ago to restrict it.

Since then, Virginia’s abortion opponents have won passage of laws creating a mandatory waiting period for women seeking abortions and requiring minors to notify their parents before having abortions, though they do not need parental consent.