RICHMOND, Virginia, February 25, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) – A bill dramatically expanding surrogacy and erasing the words “father,” “mother,” “husband,” and “wife” from certain laws has passed both chambers of the Virginia legislature and now awaits the governor’s signature.
The bill, HB 1979, expands the availability of surrogacy and defines parenthood based on “intent” rather than biology. The Virginia House of Delegates approved HB 1979 on February 5; the state Senate passed a version 28 to 12 on February 18, and then the House approved the Senate version on February 20.
The bill “allows surrogacy contracts to include forced abortions, including ‘selective reductions,’ which is the horrific practice of killing some of the babies in the womb, while leaving one or more alive,” wrote Victoria Cobb, President of the Family Foundation of Virginia. “Some contracts also allow the intended parents to be able to require abortion of the child(ren) if the child appears to have a disability, or simply if they change their minds about wanting the child. This is commonplace in surrogacy contracts, and current Virginia law does not prohibit these types of agreements. This bill will greatly expand the number of surrogacy contracts, but without doing anything to protect against forced abortions at the demands of the ‘intended parents.’”
Democrats fought against a Senate amendment preventing surrogacy contracts from containing clauses requiring surrogates to be forced to undergo abortions in certain circumstances.
Del. Danica Roem, D-13, a man who purports to be a woman, celebrated the passage of the bill, sharing on Twitter that the bill is personal to him because he is undergoing cryopreservation, through which his sperm can be saved and used to create a child.
Today in the House of Delegates, we voted in favor of final passage for making our surrogacy laws gender neutral so it’s easier for LGBTQ folks to become parents & we voted to eliminate age restrictions on autism-related health insurance coverage.
— Danica Roem (@pwcdanica) February 21, 2019
Here’s the latest from Richmond: pic.twitter.com/j6N4PdgVzA
“Family equality is at the heart of this bill, and I look forward to the Governor signing it into law,” the bill’s sponsor, Del. Rip Sullivan, D-48, said. Virginia’s Democrat Governor Ralph Northam recently made headlines for defending infanticide and then for his blackface scandal.
“I am glad that both chambers of the General Assembly passed this important bill on a bipartisan basis, affording same-sex couples and intended single parents the same rights as heterosexual couples wishing to start or grow their family through surrogacy,” said Sullivan.
“HB 1979 is a clear illustration of the lengths that the Left (and now, even some on the Right) will go to in order to redefine the family by stripping away the biological connections between parents and children and to protect the barbaric practice of selective reduction and abortion,” concluded Cobb. She thanked the legislators who spoke out against the bill, particularly Del. Dave LaRock, R-33.
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