Governor Glenn Youngkin’s recent budget proposal includes a $50,000 item for adult correctional facilities to offset increased costs from establishing a “15-week gestation limitation for abortion.”
The item aligns with Youngkin’s request that legislators pass a pain threshold abortion ban in 2023. Such a bill will face stiff opposition in the Democrat-controlled Senate, where it will likely be sent to the Senate Education and Health Committee, chaired by State Senator Louise Lucas (D-Portsmouth).
“Glenn Youngkin put money in his budget for the corrections department to jail women if they violate his 15 week abortion ban. I’m going to need a fire extinguisher because this bill is going into my trash can AND getting lit on fire,” Lucas tweeted on Monday.
Glenn Youngkin put money in his budget for the corrections department to jail women if they violate his 15 week abortion ban. I'm going to need a fire extinguisher because this bill is going into my trash can AND getting lit on fire. pic.twitter.com/IiyIJDlmSF
— L. Louise Lucas (@SenLouiseLucas) December 19, 2022
Virginia Society for Human Life President Olivia Turner said the $50,000 spending item is a standard element required whenever legislation might increase corrections costs. Still, she said Youngkin and pro-life advocates don’t intend to go after women.
“That’s from the Democrat side. Senator Louise Lucas and other pro-abortion members of the General Assembly are making that claim,” Turner told The Virginia Star.
“I can assure you, as a woman who’s had an abortion, I have had these conversations with leadership at the General Assembly and the governor’s team. And we are in agreement. No one has any intention at all of creating a situation that would create criminal penalties like that kind that she’s talking about,” Turner said.
The proposal also again includes language to eliminate an exception on using state funds to pay for abortions; Virginia law allows the use of tax funds to pay for abortions in cases with severe deformities.
After Youngkin announced the budget, Planned Parenthood Advocates of Virginia Executive Director Jamie Lockhart said in a press release, “Governor Youngkin’s decision to strike this funding from Virginia’s budget is nothing short of heartless and cruel. It places people who face complex and tragic circumstances surrounding pregnancy, like a fatal fetal diagnosis, into impossible situations. These situations deserve our compassion and support – not shame and funding restrictions that put necessary reproductive health care out of reach.”
Although Republicans control the House of Delegates, Democrats have a 21-19 majority in the Senate. Republicans are placing their hopes on the November 2023 House and Senate elections as an opportunity to win majorities that will allow them to pass pro-life legislation.
For now, the Senate Democratic majority includes State Senator Joe Morrissey (D-Richmond), who says he is pro-life. Even a convenient absence by Morrissey would give Republican Lieutenant Governor Winsome Earle-Sears a chance to pass a tie-breaking vote. But that calculation is complicated by the need to get the legislation out of committee, and Morrissey’s own willingness to break with his caucus on the high-profile issue in an election year where he is in a competitive primary race. In the summer 2022, Morrissey voted against budget language that would have blocked the use of state tax funds on abortions in cases with severe deformities.
“We look at this year as an opportunity to connect to the general public in Virginia, help the understand the extremism of the radical pro-abortion element in the General Assembly, and to recognize the intention of those legislators like our Governor and some of our pro-life legislators who want to achieve what is possible as soon as possible, moving us in the right direction,” Turner said.
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Eric Burk is a reporter at The Virginia Star and The Star News Network. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Glenn Youngkin” by Governor of Virginia. Background Photo “Virginia State Capitol” by Doug Kerr. CC BY-SA 2.0.
