Posted on 02/05/2003 5:31:44 PM PST by madprof98
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.
``Quite frankly, the people who saw this were pretty repulsed by it,'' he said.
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.''
``It hurts the decorum of the General Assembly,'' she said.
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.''
Yeah, right pal. Bigger broader issues such as power and politics? Pffffft!
Wrong! It puts the focus exaclty where it should be. That is why it made the Dems so uncomfortable.
Right, there are lots more important issues to apparatchik types than baby killing.
Hahahaha, and how old is this secretary? That thing missy is the image of a baby. It's the image of the person disposed of, by an industry catering to those that don't want to be bothered by their own baby.
"''It hurts the decorum of the General Assembly, Sen. Leslie Byrne, D-Fairfax County said''."
That's right, avoid addressing the real problem of "decorum".
"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.
Got pork?
Bahaha! How telling!
Why should it bother anyone? How many times have we heard that "It's only tissue." ??
It's a disposable doll representing a child at a different age of it's life, at an age when it's mother exhibits the ultimate degree of protection and nourishment of a child at this most delicate stage.
Abortionists just ignore reality under the guise of "ownership" by the mother.
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