State Legislative Action on Repro Rights and Health Bills

Up in DC, they’ve passed a temporary two-week budget to avoid a government shutdown—which means there’s still time to contact your Senators and ask them to oppose efforts to defund Title X and Planned Parenthood—and in the meantime, I wanted to update you on our state legislative work. It’s been busy, to say the least. 

Virginia: The VA General Assembly adjourned last week, but not before anti-choice legislators slipped in a last-minute attack on abortion providers.  Here’s what happened: a bill to regulate nursing homes passed the Senate unanimously and was sent the House.  The House adopted an amendment to the bill requiring the Department of Health to regulate first-trimester abortion providers the same way they do hospitals, and sent the bill back to the Senate.  Virginia’s state senate has a Democratic majority, but not a pro-choice majority (as Democratic Senators Phil Puckett and Chuck Colgan are anti-choice) and so when an anti-choice bill like this one gets to the Senate floor, there’s little chance of stopping it.  And that’s just what happened here–the Senate vote was 20-20 and anti-choice Lt. Governor Bill Bolling broke the tie to pass the bill.  You can read more about the potential impact of this bill here, here, and here.  

West Virginia: The deadline for legislation to be voted out of committee has passed, which means that two bills to ban insurance coverage of abortion (HB3020 and SB443 ) are dead because they did not get a committee hearing before the deadline.  However, there is still a significant chance that a situation like the one in Virginia could occur, where anti-choice amendments are tacked onto other bills, so we’re keeping a close watch on everything the legislature does until it adjourns on March 12.  Pro-choice activists are hard at work in WV, and if you missed coverage of the rally they held in support of family planning funding last week, check it out here. 

North Carolina: Right now only one anti-choice bill has been introduced in North Carolina: SB 73, a bill to authorize Choose Life license plates.  Funds from sales of the plates go to so-called crisis pregnancy centers.  You can help by contacting your senator and asking him or her to oppose this funding stream.  We expect several more bills to be introduced, so stay tuned.  Also this week, PPHS joined NC Women United at Women’s Advocacy Day at the General Assembly, where over 150 people gathered to send a message that “Women’s Lives Matter.”  Lilly Ledbetter, nationally renowned pay equity activist, was the keynote speaker.  She urged the crowd of activists to help elect more women to office at all levels of government. 

South Carolina: Last week the House Judiciary committee passed HB 3408 and sent it to the House floor.  This bill would broaden South Carolina’s refusal clause to allow medical professionals to refuse to provide services they disagree with, including dispensing birth control, without requiring them to refer the patient to another provider. In addition, the bill prohibits every insurance plan offered in South Carolina from covering abortion care.  HB 3408 will be heard on the House floor soon, so please take a minute to contact your representative about the bill.  On the Senate side, the Banking and Insurance committee will soon vote on SB 102, another insurance ban bill.  A subcommittee voted in favor of the bill yesterday after refusing to hear testimony from the public (including yours truly) and after making it clear that they really had no idea what they were voting on.  Stay tuned for more opportunities to take action on that bill. 

With everything happening at the state and federal level right now, we need your help more than ever!  If you haven’t volunteered before or want to volunteer again after a long hiatus, get in touch with a member of our policy team to find out how: patricia.dillon@pphsinc.org in NC, kira.miskimmin@pphsinc.org in WV, sloane.whelan@pphsinc.org in SC, and jessica.bearden@pphsinc.org in VA.