Delegate Bob Marshall | Former 13 Term Virginia Delegate
Delegate Marcia Price sponsored HB 609, which does the following:
Minor consent to Contraception: HB 609 states at subsection B, line 26, “B. A person shall have the right to obtain contraceptives and to engage in contraception.” No age is stipulated, so male and female minors can consent on their own to birth control.
Contraception includes Sterilization: HB 609, lines 16-17, provides that, “Contraception” means an action taken to prevent pregnancy, including the use of contraceptives or sterilization procedures.” Minors could consent to surgical or drug induced sterilization. “Sterilization” is not defined in HB 609. It could mean surgical sterilization and sterilizing drugs that produce gender mutilation.
No Parental Consent: HB 609, subsection C., lines 27-29, provides these rights “… shall not be infringed upon by any law, regulation, or policy that expressly or effectively limits, delays, or impedes access to contraceptives …” (“Contraceptives” include abortifacients.) Parental consent would thus violate HB 609.
“Contraception” means any FDA approved Drug: HB 609, lines 18-20, states, “‘Contraceptive’ means any drug … intended for use in the prevention of pregnancy, … or for other health needs, that is legally marketed under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (21 U.S.C. § 301 et seq.),” “Other health needs” means “transgender” drugs could be given to minors by a school counselor or anyone behind parents’ backs.
Attorney General Empowered to Prosecute Parents: HB 609 states, lines 52-53, that:
“The attorney general may commence a civil action on behalf of the state against any person that violates or enforces a law, regulation, or policy that violates the provisions of this chapter.”
Thus, complete strangers can pressure children to take contraceptives, abortifacients, undergo gender mutilating sterilization surgeries, all protected by the Attorney General. Parents who try to protect their children from permanent physical, emotional or spiritual harm could be prosecuted by the Attorney General!
Planned Parenthood could sue Parents: Any individual or organization which provides birth control or sterilization could sue minors’ parents who object.
Abortifacients Redefined as “Contraception”: HB 609 includes abortifacients, redefined as contraception, to fool women who might oppose abortifacients.
In l952, Planned Parenthood’s Medical Director wrote: “. . . any biologic method that would prevent ovulation or fertilization merely prevent(s) life from beginning. . . . Measures designed to prevent implantation fall into a different category. Here there is a question of destroying a life already begun.”
[Abraham Stone, M.D., “Research in Contraception: A Review and Preview,” presented at the Third International Conference of Planned Parenthood, Bombay, India, Report of the Proceedings, November 24-29, 1952, Family Planning Association of India, 101.]
A 1963 U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare survey noted: “All the measures which impair the viability of the zygote at any time between the instant of fertilization and the completion of labor constitute, in the strict sense, procedures for inducing abortion.”
[“A Survey of Research on Reproduction Related to Birth and Population Control” (as of January 1, 1962), U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare, Public Health Service, publ. No. 1066, Washington D.C., U.S. Government Printing Office, 1963, 27]
No Conscience Protections: HB 609 has no conscience or religious liberty protections for individuals, institutions, or health care providers. HB 609 violates Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, a 2014 US Supreme Court decision which held that privately held for profit corporations cannot be forced to violate the owners’ religious beliefs or conscience rights.
No Informed Consent: No provision of HB 609 ensures that informed consent be given to adults or minors.
No Protection for doctors: HB 609 states (lines 54-56) states: “ Any individual … or patient, adversely affected by an alleged violation of this chapter may commence a civil action against any person that … enforces a law, regulation, or policy in violation of this chapter.” Therefore, doctors who refuse sterilization, abortifacients, birth control or transgender sterilizing drugs even for minors can be sued for adversely affecting a patient.
Thank you, Delegate Bob Marshall
Former 13 Term Virginia Delegate
