Bill Number:	SB380 [ view bill ]
Status:	Referred to Committee on General Laws
Sponsor(s):	Sen. Donald McEachin

Birth control; definition.  Adds a definition ofbirth control. The bill provides that "birth control" means contraceptive methods that areapproved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and is not consideredabortion for the purposes of Title 18.2 of the Code of Virginia.

Bill Number:	HB 1 [ view bill ]
Status:	Referred to House Committee for Courts of Justice
Sponsor(s):	Del. Bob Marshall, Sen. Charles Colgan
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Rights of unborn children. Provides that unborn children at every stage of development enjoy all the rights, privileges, and immunities available to other persons, citizens, and residents of the Commonwealth, subject only to the laws and constitutions of Virginia and the United States, precedents of the United States Supreme Court, and provisions to the contrary in the statutes of the Commonwealth.

Bill Number:	HB 62 [ view bill ]
Status:	Passed House of Delegates 64-35 - Now in Senate Education and Health
Sponsor(s):	Del. Mark Cole

Funding for certain abortions.  Repeals the section authorizing the Board of Health to fund abortions for women who meet the financial eligibility criteria of the State Plan for Medical Assistance in cases in which a physician certifies that he believes that the fetus would be born with a gross and totally incapacitating physical deformity or mental deficiency.

Bill Number:	HB 261 [ view bill ]
Status:	Rolled into HB462
Sponsor(s):	Del. Mark Cole

Abortion; ultrasound required. Requires every pregnant female to undergo a limited ultrasound examination prior to undergoing an abortion procedure. The bill also requires the Department of Health to compile information on facilities that perform free ultrasound services.

Bill Number:	HB 462 [ view bill ]
Status:	Referred to House Committee for Courts of Justice
Sponsor(s):	Del. Kathy Byron (Chief Patron), Del. Richard Anderson, Del. Richard Bell, Del. Benjamin Cline, Del. Anne Crockett-Stark, Del. Tom Garrett, Del. Timothy Hugo, Del. Brenda Pogge, Del. Charles Poindexter, Del. David Ramadan, Del. Tony Wilt

Abortion; informed consent. Requires that, as a component of informed consent to an abortion, to determine gestation age, every pregnant female shall undergo ultrasound imaging and be given an opportunity to view the ultrasound image of her fetus prior to the abortion. The medical professional performing the ultrasound must obtain written certification from the woman that the opportunity was offered and whether the woman availed herself of the opportunity to see the ultrasound image or hear the fetal heartbeat. A copy of the ultrasound and the written certification shall be maintained in the woman's medical records at the facility where the abortion is to be performed.

Bill Number:	SB 279 [ view bill ]
Status:	Rolled into SB484
Sponsor(s):	Sen. Ralph Smith

Informed consent; ultrasound.  Requires that, as a component of informed consent to an abortion, at the appointment for the abortion procedure every pregnant female shall undergo ultrasound imaging to determine gestation age and shall be given the opportunity to view the ultrasound image of her fetus.

Bill Number:	SB 484 [ view bill ]
Status:	Passed Senate 21-18
Sponsor(s):	Sen. Jill Holtzman Vogel

Abortion; informed consent. Requires that, as a component of informed consent to an abortion, to determine gestation age, every pregnant female shall undergo ultrasound imaging and be given an opportunity to view the ultrasound image of her fetus prior to the abortion. The medical professional performing the ultrasound must obtain written certification from the woman that the opportunity was offered and whether the woman availed herself of the opportunity to see the ultrasound image or hear the fetal heartbeat. A copy of the ultrasound and the written certification shall be maintained in the woman's medical records at the facility where the abortion is to be performed.

Bill Number:	HB464 [ view bill ]
Status:	Tabled
Sponsor(s):	Del. Kathy Byron

Virginia Health Benefit Exchange.  Creates the Virginia Health Benefit Exchange, which will be established and operated by anew division within the State Corporation Commission. The Exchange shall facilitate the purchase and sale of qualified health plans and qualified dental plans to qualified individuals and qualified employers. The Exchange will be funded by assessments on health insurers offering plans in the Exchange. A health plan will not be required to cover any state mandated health benefit if federal law does not require it to be covered as part of the essential benefits package. The essential health benefits are items and services included in the benchmark health insurance plan, which is the largest plan in the largest product in the Commonwealth's small group market as supplemented in order to provide coverage for the items and services within the statutory essential health benefits categories. The Exchange shall ensure that no qualified health insurance plan that is sold or offered for sale through the Exchange provides coverage for abortions, except for an abortion performed (i) when the life of the mother is endangered by a physical disorder, physical illness, or physical injury, including a life-endangering physical condition caused by or arising from the pregnancy itself, or (ii) when the pregnancy is the result of an alleged act of rape or incest.  The measure shall expire if any section,clause, provision, or portion of Title I, subtitle D of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act shall be repealed or held invalid or unconstitutional by any court of competent jurisdiction.

Bill Number:	HB1174 [ view bill ]
Status:	Assigned to Committee on Commerce and Labor, Subcommittee #1
Sponsor(s):	Del. Bob Marshall

Health insurance; policies withoutabortion coverage.  Requires any health insurer that offers, sells, orissues a health insurance policy in the Commonwealth that provides coverage forabortion services to also offer for sale in the Commonwealth a health insurancepolicy with substantively identical terms and conditions except that it doesnot provide coverage for abortion services. A health insurance policy that doesnot provide coverage for abortion services will be required to (i) providecoverage for the costs of services of a physician and other services incurredin providing medical assistance to preserve the life of a pregnant womanprovided every possible measure shall be taken to preserve the life of theunborn child of the pregnant woman or (ii) reimburse the costs of servicesincurred in providing medical treatment to address previous fetal demise orintrauterine fetal death. The measure also provides that the basic health careservices provided in a health care plan offered by a health maintenanceorganization may, but shall not be required to, provide coverage for abortionservices.

Bill Number:	HB 1285 & SB 637 [ view bill ]
Status:	SB637 was defeated in Senate Education and Health. HB1285 has yet to be heard.
Sponsor(s):	Del. Anderson and Sen. Obenshain

Virginia Pain-Capable Unborn Child ProtectionAct; penalty. Creates the Virginia Pain-Capable Unborn ChildProtection Act. The act, created in new Article 9.1 of Chapter 4 ofTitle 18.2, prohibits an abortion after 20 weeks gestation unless,in reasonable medical judgment, the mother has a condition that socomplicates her medical condition as to necessitate the abortion toavert her death or to avert serious risk of substantial and irreversiblephysical impairment of a major bodily function. The prohibition ispredicated on the assertion that a fetus is capable of feeling painat 20 weeks. When an abortion is not prohibited post-20 weeks gestation,the physician is required to terminate the pregnancy in a manner thatwould provide the unborn child the best opportunity to survive. Thebill punishes an abortion in violation of the article as a Class 6felony. The bill also provides for civil remedies against a physicianwho performs an abortion in violation of the article.

Bill Number:	SB674 [ view bill ]
Status:	Referred to Senate Committee on Education and Health
Sponsor(s):	Sen. Stanley, Sen. Garrett

Action for death by wrongful act; howand when to be brought.  For the purpose of this section, death of a personincludes a fetus.