GA Session Ends with Hope and Disappointment!
Over the weekend the General Assembly completed its work on all bills and the 2025-2026 budget, and adjourned until April 17th when they return to Richmond for the reconvene session to consider the Governor’s amendments and vetoes. Despite the massive liberal headwinds this year, there was some good news last week.
Assisted Suicide Bills Defeated!
Amid all the discouraging bills headed to the Governor’s desk for his action, we wanted to make you aware of at least one recent victory – the General Assembly did NOT pass an assisted suicide bill this year!
Despite the efforts of assisted suicide proponents, and a special visit by Congresswoman Jennifer Wexton (D-10th CD), who is tragically facing a terminal condition and is using it to champion this legislative effort in Virginia, the House of Delegates fell short of the necessary votes to pass an assisted suicide bill. Last month HB 858 (D-Hope) failed to receive the necessary votes to pass the House on crossover, and early last week the House Courts of Justice voted to continue SB 280 (D-Hashmi), which passed the Senate 21-19, to 2025 and thus defeating the issue for the year.
We certainly pray for Congresswoman Wexton and her family, and all families, faced with these difficult end-of-life challenges. However, if these bills become law, insurance companies will begin withholding treatments in favor of doctor-prescribed suicide; medicine that is used to heal would become a weapon to intentionally accelerate death; and it would exploit those who are weak and vulnerable. Thankfully, Virginia joins Maryland this year in rejecting physician assisted suicide.
Governor’s Vetoes and Amendments
Now that the 2024 General Assembly session has officially concluded, many high profile, anti-family bills we have been fighting against this year are now headed to the Governor’s desk. The Governor is the last line of defense to stop many of these bills from harming families and our Commonwealth. His veto pen is critical.
Already the Governor has taken final action on 84 pieces of legislation, signing 64 bills into law, amending 12 bills and vetoing 8 bills that were sent to him seven days before the General Assembly adjourned.
We were extremely disappointed to see that the Governor signed into law HB 174 (D-Hensen) which puts into the Virginia Code for the first time so-called "same-sex marriage" and injects gender ideology by separating "sex" and "gender" into two categories, with minimal protections for only clergy and religious organizations. (There will be more discussion and analysis on this issue soon.)
However, we were pleased about these favorable actions.
Vetoed
SB 235 (D-Hashmi) – This bill would have codified language discouraging school boards from using its authority to protect the innocence of children by keeping sexually explicit materials out of school libraries and added the term “censoring” to the code section, without any definition of what qualifies as censoring.
HB 110 (D-Sullivan) – This bill would have repealed the current prohibition on receiving payments to procure a surrogate mother to carry someone else’s child, creating a commercial “rent-a womb” industry that will incentivize the exploitation and commodification of vulnerable women and babies.
Amended
SB 238 (D-Hashmi) - would require health plans to cover everything the FDA defines as contraception – including some drugs that can cause abortions like Ella or Ulipristal, which works the same way as the “abortion pill” RU-486. The Governor’s amendment adds a religious and moral exemption for sponsors of non-governmental plans in accordance with existing federal and state law.
Your Voice is Needed
Governor Youngkin still needs your support to help him reject more pieces of legislation that would mandate a right to abortion causing drugs, violate the innocence of children, turn public schools into a one-stop place for every education and health service, proliferate neighborhood slot machines, and put pot shops on every street corner. We have created a page on our website that will be updated which contains links to bills that will allow you to quickly take action and urge the Governor to veto harmful bills. Click the banner below to go straight to the webpage.
