[VA} Republican sends Senate members plastic fetus doll [infuriating Democrats]

RICHMOND -- A Republican lawmaker infuriated Democrats Wednesday by sending members of the Senate pink plastic fetus dolls with a letter asking, ``Would you kill this child?''

Del. Richard Black of Loudoun County said the doll, which he described as a ``little Barbie doll baby'' in its first trimester, was intended to remind senators of the human side of abortion. It was accompanied by a message on official state letterhead in which Black graphically describes what happens to a fetus during an abortion.

``This is the size and shape of an actual first-trimester baby,'' the letter reads. ``Abortionists kill most babies at this stage of development.''

Both the Senate and House are considering several important abortion bills in the closing weeks of the session, with conservative legislators confident many will get through with veto-proof margins. The tide of conservatism in both chambers has so alarmed Democrats that more than a dozen lawmakers attended a news conference Wednesday where they railed against measures they say will set abortion rights in Virginia back to the days before Roe v. Wade.

But Democratic legislators saved their harshest comments for Black's letter, which Senate Minority Leader Richard Saslaw of Fairfax County said was one of the most inappropriate things he has seen in his 23 years in the Senate.

Added Sen. Leslie Byrne, D-Fairfax County, ``It shocked me and, as a matter of fact, my secretary was frightened. She saw this thing in the envelope and didn't know what it was.''

House Speaker William Howell, R-Stafford, also called it a bad idea. He said too much attention is being paid to hot-button issues like abortion this session.

``It does take the focus off the bigger, broader issues that we're doing, and I think that's regrettable,'' Howell said.

Saslaw pointed the blame for the ratcheted-up rhetoric at Republicans. He and other Democrats attributed it to Republicans trying to curry favor with constituents during an election year.

``I've never seen such an avalanche of this,'' he said. ``I think it's only a matter of time, hopefully sooner than later, that the women of Virginia wake up and realize what's happening.''

Black has said he believes this will be the year to pass legislation banning a late-term procedure abortion opponents call ``partial-birth abortion'' and requiring minors seeking an abortion to receive permission from a parent. But despite his strong lobbying efforts on these issues, Black maintains the fetus dolls were in good taste.

``We have these babies all around our office,'' he said. ``We're always handing them out to people.''

His message to legislators was clear: ``I want each one of them to know what they're talking about when we talk about killing children. ... It's my belief that abortion is going to end in America within 10 years.''

Feb 06, 2003

Anti-abortion tactics lead to complaints

BY TAMMIE SMITH
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER

Some state senators were not happy to receive a plastic fetus with a letter asking, "Would you kill this child?"
(BOB BROWN)

Some Virginia state senators are complaining about an anti-abortion letter from Del. Richard H. Black that included a small plastic doll Black said was the size of an 11-week-old fetus.

"Would you kill this child?" asked Black in the accompanying letter dated Feb. 3 sent to all 40 senators.

Black, R-Loudoun, is sponsor of a number of anti-abortion bills that are poised for passage in a General Assembly session that has dealt with an unprecedented amount of legislation on that issue.

"Abortionists kill most babies at this stage of development," Black wrote in the letter. "The struggling infants are chemically scalded or slashed apart with jagged knives. They receive no pain killers and experience excruciating pain and terror during the final moments of life."

Black's "in your face" anti-abortion tactics were not sitting well with some legislators who feel he crossed the line.

"I think this is an assault on the decorum of the General Assembly," said Sen. Leslie L. Byrne, D-Fairfax.

"I could send around gory photos of women before Roe v. Wade. I am not going to do that. I think this creates a hostile work environment for the people who have to open this."

Roe v. Wade is the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion. Before then, say abortion-rights supporters, women sometimes died or were maimed by illegal, botched abortions.

Byrne said she had filed complaints with the chairman of the Senate Rules Committee and with the Senate clerk about Black's letter and doll. An employee in the Senate clerk's office confirmed getting complaints from two senators.

"This is the most inappropriate thing I've seen since I've been in the General Assembly," said Senate Minority Leader Richard L. Saslaw, D-Fairfax. He showed reporters the doll and letter during a news conference by Democratic legislators who support abortion rights.

"It's unfortunate that this is where this thing has gone to," Saslaw said. "The people who saw this were pretty repulsed by it. I don't know any other way you can describe it."

Black, asked later about the letter, said his office sends out the little plastic babies all the time.

"What I did was take a little model of a baby - it's a first-trimester baby - and I sent that because I want each one of them to know what they are talking about when they talk about killing children," said Black, surrounded by reporters when he walked into the state Capitol yesterday.

The abortion discussions can get clinical, he said. "But you see the child, and all of a sudden you say, 'This is what we are doing. We are killing children like this,'" he said.

He was unapologetic about his efforts to see abortion outlawed, with Virginia leading the way, and compared the anti-abortion drive to the civil-rights movement.

"Years ago, I was involved as a teenager in trying to break down segregation," he said. Segregation was accepted, then the tide started to turn.

"You can see, at a certain point, it was all coming unglued," he said. "I am sensing that on the abortion issue."

He said there was nothing improper about his use of state letterhead, which Saslaw questioned.

With Republican majorities in the House and the Senate, legislators this session have approved anti-abortion measures that have been defeated in years past.

Approved bills include legislation that would ban what abortion opponents call "partial-birth infanticide" and legislation that would require girls younger than 18 to get a parent's consent before they could get an abortion. Virginia already has a law requiring minors to notify a parent or other responsible adult before getting an abortion but does not require permission.

Bills approved by the House or Senate are now before the other body for consideration.

The infanticide and parental-consent bills appear to have enough votes to withstand a veto by Gov. Mark R. Warner, who has expressed concerns about the legislation. He vetoed a parental-consent bill last year.

Democratic critics of the bills say legislators who in the past have been more moderate on the issue, are switching sides out of fear of election-year losses. All seats in the House and Senate are up for re-election this year.

"A great deal of what is going on is due to redistricting," said Sen. Mary Margaret Whipple, D-Arlington.

"There are very few competitive districts. If you don't have a competitive district, then the biggest threat is from somebody in your own party wanting to get a nomination."

Women are not up in arms over the legislation, Saslaw said, because they erroneously feel they have protections in the courts.

"That is one vote away in the Supreme Court from being yanked," Saslaw said.

Contact Tammie Smith at (804) 649-6572 or tlsmith@timesdispatch.com

RTD

Also posted here: Republican sends Senate members plastic fetus doll

That's why I think it is their achille's heel. Public opinion is turning on abortion. People are beginning to actually think about it and what it really is. It is the one objective reality that cannot be finessed with spin it takes an outright rejection of reality to support. The spin that exists is just a cover, a defense against thought.If enough people, such as you describe, stop voting for "choice" and, even if they don't vote "life", vote for what they want instead the Democrats will fail big time.

But more than that if that biggest of all lies is exposed and falls apart the other more ambiguous issues of their ideology will be much more vulnerable. The socialist/communist left relies on the "choice" vote to rally to them for the rest. It's true of the "green" vote too but I think that is much smaller and much shakier.

I'm surprised you've only been here two months. Seems like you've been here quite a while. : ) ROTM sounds good to me now that I know what it means. There were a number of acronyms I just couldn't figure out and when I asked I had to slap my head at how obvious they were.

Prayer is a must. I have a view of making one's whole life a prayer. Trying to hold a prayerful mind at all times you might say. May you realize great blessings in your life through prayer.

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