Just days after New York legislators passed the late-term abortion law now known as the Reproductive Health Act, lawmakers in the state of Virginia brought forth a similar bill that would allow late-term abortions all the way up until the time of BIRTH.
On Monday, Virginia Rep. Kathy Tran introduced a bill — HB 2491 — that would allow for abortion up until birth in cases in which the health or life of the mother is at risk. The Repeal Act would remove all existing abortion restrictions in the state of Virginia, and as Tran admitted in Monday’s hearing, that includes allowing abortion even when a woman is in active labor about to deliver her child.
A shocking video from the hearing is making the rounds this week after Virginia House majority leader Todd Gilbert pressed Tran for specifics of the bill.
Gilbert: So how late in the third trimester could a physician perform an abortion if he indicated it would impair the mental health of the woman?
Train: Or physical health.
Gilbert: Okay. I’m talking about mental health.
Tran: I mean, through the third trimester. The third trimester goes all the way up to 40 weeks.
Gilbert: So to the end of the third trimester?
Tran: Yes. I don’t think we have a limit in the bill.
Gilbert: So where it’s obvious that a woman is about to give birth, she has physical signs that she’s about to give birth, would that still be a point at which she could still request an abortion if she was so certified? She’s dilating?
Tran: Mr. Chairman, you know, that would be a decision that the doctor, the physician, and the woman would make.
Gilbert: I understand that. I’m asking if your bill allows that.
Tran: My bill would allow that, yes
Uncomfortably beating around the bush of her own bill, Tran admits that a mother in active labor could make the decision then and there to abort that precious baby instead — just moments before taking its first breath.
How did we get here? How did our society become one that is so concerned with “women’s health” that we would justify the legitimate killing of babies in order to validate a woman’s “choice” — no matter what the cost?