Virginia Assembly To Tackle Abortion

Abortion rights supporters counter that the regulations are not needed because there have been few instances in which health or sanitary conditions have been an issue in one of the state's abortion clinics.

Other proposals under consideration this year include bills that would stiffen penalties for injuring a fetus as well as measures that require women to be given more information about a fetus before an abortion. The General Assembly will also consider a measure to require minors to get parental permission before obtaining birth control and one that would require a doctor to use anesthesia when performing an abortion on a fetus after 20 or more weeks.

Hamilton said he is not sure whether any abortion-related bills would pass the House this year but doubts that there will be much enthusiasm for taking up Marshall's plan for a total ban.

Gov. Timothy M. Kaine (D) has said he opposes abortion personally but would veto any bill that outlaws abortion. A different political landscape might present itself next year, however, when the Senate committee that has blocked most restrictions on abortion might have a new chairman.

Even if some of the abortion bills pass the House this year, Sen. H. Russell Potts Jr. (R-Winchester), chairman of the Senate Education and Health Committee, said they would face a hostile reaction in his committee.

"It's absolutely outrageous stuff that is just totally out of the mainstream," Potts said. "They just don't get it. Women by the thousands are deserting the Republican Party."

Some of Potts's Republican colleagues say he's the one out of the mainstream because he's blocking restrictions that a majority of senators support. Sen. Ken Cuccinelli II (R-Fairfax) refers to the Education and Health Committee as the "committee of death."

But Potts, a Republican maverick who angered many party leaders in 2005 when he launched an independent bid for governor, might not be around next year to block abortion-related bills: He said he is considering retiring. If a new chairman takes over and allows antiabortion legislation to reach the full Senate, Potts said, "it has a very good chance to pass."