Virginia General Assembly Update – Week 2
Here in Richmond, we stand in prayer and solidarity with all those participating in the National March for Life in DC today! In addition, here are key updates from another fast-paced week of the Virginia General Assembly session.
Assisted suicide: Once again, bills that would legalize assisted suicide have been introduced. Please urge your legislators to oppose this deadly, discriminatory, and exploitive legislation! No patient—whether disabled, mentally ill, elderly, or otherwise—should ever be abandoned or discarded. Every person potentially facing the end of life should have access to quality medical, palliative, and hospice care—instead of drugs to hasten their death. Take action now!
Other Key Issues: This week, we testified in committee on a wide range of issues.
We testified AGAINST bills that would:
- Obstruct peaceful prayer, witness and counseling outside abortion facilities
- Undermine conscience rights and grant minors a “right” to undergo sterilization procedures and obtain contraceptives
- Create a retail marketplace for marijuana
We testified FOR bills that would:
- Limit solitary confinement
- Help tenants struggling to keep up with rent
- Protect female sports
- Increase the minimum wage
- Provide farmworkers the protection of Virginia’s minimum wage requirements
- Eliminate the sales tax on groceries
- Make high-cost prescription drugs more affordable
Many of these measures advanced. One of them – the bill that would establish a buffer zone around abortion facilities and restrict the ability to share life-affirming information and resources – passed the full Senate yesterday by a 20-19 vote.
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In prayer and in public, your voices are urgently needed to bring Gospel values to bear on vital decisions being made by those who represent you.
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The Virginia Catholic Conference is the public policy agency representing Virginia’s Catholic bishops and their two dioceses.
