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Legislators Speak at Annual Unveiling
by
Mike Hodge
HARRISONBURG, VA--The Valley Family Forum held its 5th annual “unveiling” recently. Local delegates and senators addressed the audience about their pro-family, pro-business initiatives that they are sponsoring for the upcoming General Assembly session. Legislators speaking at the event included: Del. Ben Cline (R-Rockbridge), Del. Steve Landes (R-Waynesboro), Del. Matt Lohr (R- Rockingham), Del. Chris Saxman (R-Staunton), Sen. Mark Obenshain (R- Harrisonburg) and Sen. Jill Holtzman Vogel (R-Winchester).
Chris Freund, Vice President of Policy and Communications for the Family Foundation of Virginia, an offshoot of Focus on the Family, started by saying that Focus on the Family has two functions, “to nurture and to protect the family, and the Family Foundation of Virginia is mainly on the ‘to protect’ side.” Freund said locally we have some of the best representation in all of Virginia.
The Family Foundation is working on two new areas this upcoming year. The first is adding a requirement to teach the benefits of marriage in Family Life Education (FLE) and the second is Chaplain Religious Liberty Protection, which addresses the Kaine Administration’s decision to forbid chaplains from praying in Jesus’ name.
Del. Ben Cline talked about how the Founding Fathers put the right to life first on the founding documents. He said that without this right, “none of the others are relevant or even important.” The delegate says this is the one he has choosen to focus on the General Assembly.
Del. Chris Saxman talked about one of the bills he intends to introduce, a constitutional amendment protecting Virginia’s status as a “right to work” state. Saxman says he’s concerned with the recent assaults on the “right to work” statute. He said the Freedom of Choice Act was put in to “punish your employer.” Saying if this bill passed, “you would see the economy in severe decline very quickly and manufacturing will flee the United States and especially Virginia.” He said “the Constitution is designed to protect people from the government.”
Saxman also intends to work with “School Choice Virginia” on giving parents a say in their child’s education.
Sen. Jill Holtzman Vogel said she has pre-filed 30 bills this session. She says there’s a whole lot of work that needs to be done in Richmond. “The decision for life was made for me when someone explained to me what the Ten Commandments meant,” she said. One of the bills that Vogel is filing has to do with abortion clinic safety.” The argument there is that ... if you have abortion clinics that are required to be safe, then all of them will be shut down. Well, if it’s the case in Virginia that our abortion clinics are so unsafe and they can’t meet the common thresholds, standards for any other ambulatory surgery center, then they should be shut down. Absolutely, without question.”
The senator is also sponsoring a bill on abortion clinic reporting that would require clinics to report medical complications from abortions to the state.
Other Family Foundation legislative priorities include improving informed consent. The ultrasound requirement would make abortion providers have an ultrasound machine in the clinic, to perform an ultrasound, and to inform the woman of her right to review it. It would also require health department informed consent materials to include the ultrasound information. Several states have similar legislation including Alabama, Michigan, and Oklahoma. Del. Ben Cline is also sponsoring a Fetal Pain Relief bill that would require clinics to give information regarding fetal pain. This is similar to the federal efforts.
The foundation is also following bills that deal with budget transparency, which would improve the budget online and individual budget amendments that deal with state funding of embryonic stem cell research and Planned Parenthood.
Comments? Email us at letters@thevalleyamerican.com.
© 2008 The Valley American
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