Action Needed, March 3
SB137 to be voted on in House of Delegates Contact your Delegates and Upcoming events
Contact your state delegates today: https://lis.virginia.gov/session-details/20261/member-information
THIS IS A FIRST AMENDMENT ISSUE: ABILITY TO SPEAK, ABILITY TO HEAR INFORMATION AND ABILITY TO ASSEMBLY PEACEABLY.
SB137 Obstructing health care facility access; penalties.
§ 8.01-44.8. Civil action for obstructing reproductive health services facility access. A. Any person injured by reason of a violation of § 18.2-404.1 may sue therefor and recover actual damages or $5,000 per violation, whichever is greater for each action, punitive damages, and reasonable attorney fees and costs. B. If the Attorney General on behalf of the Commonwealth, or the attorney for the Commonwealth or county attorney on behalf of a county, or the city attorney on behalf of a city, or the town attorney on behalf of a town has reasonable cause to believe that any person or group of persons is being, has been, or may be injured by conduct constituting a violation § 18.2-404.1, whether or not any individual has been charged with or convicted of the alleged violation, he may commence a civil action on behalf of such person or group of persons and the court may award injunctive relief. § 18.2-404.1.
Obstructing reproductive health services facility access; penalties.
A. As used in this section, unless the context requires a different meaning: "Facility" includes a hospital, clinic, and physician's office and the building or structure in which the facility is located. "Interfere with" means to restrict a person's freedom of movement. "Intimidate" means to place a person in reasonable apprehension of bodily harm to himself or to another person. "Law-enforcement officer" means the same as that term is defined in § 9.1-101. "Physical obstruction" means rending impassable ingress to or egress from a facility that provides reproductive health services or rending passage to or from such facility unreasonably or unnecessarily difficult or hazardous to another person. "Reproductive health services" means reproductive health services provided in a hospital, clinic, physician's office, or other facility, and includes any institution, place, building, or agency that is licensed, certified, or otherwise authorized or permitted by law in the Commonwealth to administer or provide medical treatment, including medical, surgical, counseling, or referral services relating to the human reproductive system such as pregnancy or termination of a pregnancy.
B. Any person not authorized by a reproductive health services facility who (i) by force or threat of force, or by physical obstruction, intentionally injures, intimidates, or interferes with, or attempts to injure, intimidate, or interfere with, another person because such other person is or has been, or in order to intimidate such person or any other person or any class of persons from, obtaining or providing reproductive health services or (ii) intentionally damages or destroys, or attempts to damage or destroy, a facility because such facility provides reproductive health services is guilty of a Class 1 misdemeanor.
C. A law-enforcement officer may order the immediate withdrawal of one or more individuals who have on that day interfered with access to or departure from an entrance or driveway to a reproductive health services facility. Any order issued pursuant to this subsection shall be in writing and shall include the following statements: (i) the individual or individuals have interfered with access to or departure from the reproductive health care facility; (ii) the individual or individuals so ordered shall, under the penalty of arrest and prosecution, immediately withdraw and cease to stand or be located within at least 25 feet of an entrance or driveway to the reproductive health care facility; and (iii) the order shall remain in place for eight hours or until the close of business of the reproductive health services facility, whichever is earlier. This subsection shall apply only if the 25-foot boundary is clearly marked pursuant to subsection E. Any person who violates any order issued pursuant to this subsection is guilty of a (a) Class 3 misdemeanor for a first or second offense or (b) Class 1 misdemeanor for any third or subsequent offense.
D. In addition to the penalties described in subsection B or C, any person who violates subsection B or a third or subsequent offense of subsection C is subject to a civil penalty in an amount not to exceed (i) $10,000 for a nonviolent physical obstruction, (ii) $15,000 for a violent physical obstruction, and (iii) $25,000 for any subsequent violation. Such penalty shall be collected by the attorney for the Commonwealth for the locality where the violation occurred, and the proceeds shall be deposited into the Literary Fund.
The hypocrisy of this legislation is that Governor Spanberger has made Virginia a sanctuary state for CRIMINALS. Governor Spanberger is protecting people who have murdered and raped people in Virginia. BLM and Antifa have been allowed to have “mostly peaceful” destructive protects for years but people working to protect innocent human life are criminals.
This legislation will criminalize people who are exercising there first amendment right to protect innocent pre-born children and young people who are seeking to obtain hormone blocking agents or hormones of the opposite sex. This article will focus on abortion and the Right to free speech, freedom to assembly and protest.
Women entering an abortion center have a right to informed consent. They have a right to hear and comprehend the risks, benefits and alternatives of any medication or procedure before agreeing to have a procedure or take a medication.
This legislation creates two standards: one for abortion escorts and one for sidewalk counselors, those people outside of abortion clinics seeking to provide the woman with additional information to protect her and her pre-born child.
This legislation allows for “abortion escorts” to surround a woman as she enters an abortion clinic. The ‘abortion escorts” are protected but the sidewalk counselors will be prosecuted. Thus, one group has their free speech protected while the other is fined and may serve time in jail.
Abortion escorts have no limitation in their ability to move in front of an abortion facility, but those who seek to save the lives of pre-born children have significant limitations that will result in significant criminal penalties.
It is clear that the practice of abortion is not about protecting women or children it is about making money. The abortion industry is a well oil machine that has indoctrinated our children, legislators and our churches.
By preventing sidewalk counselors, the last line of defense of the pre-born child is removed. Removing sidewalk counselors prevents a mother from receiving the necessary information to provide informed consent. This prevents a sidewalk counselor from asking the mother if she would like to obtain an ultrasound prior to her abortion. This prevents the mother from understanding that her actions will result in the death of a unique human being, not the death of “tissue.” This prevents the mother from hearing the complications of abortion: the risk of uterine tear, tears to the cervix, infection because the procedure introduced bacteria into the uterus or into her blood stream. This young mother is not informed of her hormones plummeting immediately following the procedure, the risk of suicide, depression, anxiety, and substance abuse. This young mother is not informed of the increased risk of breast cancer, the increased risk of miscarriage, infertility and complications in future pregnancies.
The young mothers taking the abortion pill are not informed of the risk of sepsis, a life threatening infection of the blood and hemorrhage. They are not informed that if they change their mind, the abortion pill can be reversed. They are not informed that misoprostol induces labor not simply a “heavy menstrual cycle.”
Dismantling the legislation:
On the surface this appears to be about people who "obstruct” abortion facilities. This legislation is obstructing the Right to Free Speech, Free assembly, and the Freedom to protest. If this bill is unchallenged, it allows further erosion of our Constitutional Rights.
In this legislation:
a healthcare facility- This is broad language. This includes clinics that perform abortion (this is an elective or induced abortion) as well as pregnancy resource centers that typically do not provide elective or induced abortions. I am specific in my language in reference to elective or induced abortions because the pro-abortion organizations including the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology are blurring the language of abortion to include spontaneous abortions, otherwise known as a miscarriage or still birth. In a miscarriage or still birth, the pre-born baby dies from any number of causes, however, no direct action was taken to kill the pre-born child. In an elective or induced abortion, a direct action is taken to end the life of the pre-born child.
Interfere - This technically does not cover simply standing outside the clinic. Does interference begin when you speak? Thus, freedom of speech is what is now classified as interference? If you were to obstruct the door then that would be considered interference. However, is now the attempt to engage a mother in a conversation interference? Thus, the mother does not have a right to informed consent.
Intimidate- This is already prohibited by law. Intimidations was previously defined in law. Current law has established a standard of “credible threat” based on threats of violence, aggressive behavior, tone and gestures. Now, with this law, will people who are simply standing and/or talking outside of an abortion clinic may be classified as intimidating? Now, will people asking another to reconsider their potential actions be classified as intimidating? Thus, if I ask a person to stop and think before acting, to pause before completing a dangerous and potential deadly decision, I am demonstrating intimidation? If I ask someone to make a decision not to drive intoxicated, is this intimidation? If I ask someone to reconsider life threatening behavior (substance abuse, high risk relationships, speeding) is this intimidation?
“Physical obstruction” means rending impassable ingress to or egress from a facility that provides reproductive health services or rending passage to or from such facility unreasonably or unnecessarily difficult or hazardous to another person. If this code is passed, a person can be viewed as blocking the driveway to a clinic if they are attempting to hand out literature to people in vehicles. Again, the last chance for informed consent.
“Reproductive health services” means reproductive health services provided in a hospital, clinic, physician’s office, or other facility, and includes any institution, place, building, or agency that is licensed, certified, or otherwise authorized or permitted by law in the Commonwealth to administer or provide medical treatment, including medical, surgical, counseling, or referral services relating to the human reproductive system such as pregnancy or termination of a pregnancy. (This means IVF clinics, clinics offering cross sex hormones, hormone blockers and surgical procedures related to sex organs, and clinics or hospitals that exclusively provide abortion at all stages of pregnancy.
Consequences: Guilty of a Class 1 misdemeanor. This creates a double standard. Clinic escorts that surround a person entering a clinic and specifically prevent the person surrounded from hearing or receiving information that allows for informed consent and not prosecuted.
A person must be provided information so that they can understand fully the consequences of a surgical procedure or medications that will end a pregnancy. The person must understand the risks, benefits and alternatives to the medication or procedure. The person must understand that their actions will result in the death of another human being. They must comprehend this information prior to giving assent to the procedure or reception of medications that will end the pregnancy or disrupt hormones. Clinic escorts prevent women from hearing the truth. Clinic escorts pressure and tell women not to listen to sidewalk counselors who are attempting to give them information to allow for truly informed consent. Thus, only one side gets arrested. The sidewalk counselors who are seeking to provide women with informed consent vs. the clinic escorts who seek to prevent informed consent. The sidewalk counselors will be charged with a Class 1 misdemeanor with up to 12 months in jail and or a fine up to 2500.) Consequences for the escort: none.
A law-enforcement officer may order the immediate withdrawal of one or more individuals who have on that day “interfered” with access to or departure from an entrance or driveway to a reproductive health services facility. Any order issued pursuant to this subsection shall be in writing and shall include the following statements: (i) the individual or individuals have interfered with access to or departure from the reproductive health care facility; (ii) the individual or individuals so ordered shall, under the penalty of arrest and prosecution, immediately withdraw and cease to stand or be located within at least 25 feet of an entrance or driveway to the reproductive health care facility; and (iii) the order shall remain in place for eight hours or until the close of business of the reproductive health services facility, whichever is earlier. This subsection shall apply only if the 25-foot boundary is clearly marked pursuant to subsection E. Any person who violates any order issued pursuant to this subsection is guilty of a (a) Class 3 misdemeanor for a first or second offense or (b) Class 1 misdemeanor for any third or subsequent offense.
(There is no prohibition against simply standing within 25 feet of the clinic. But if a law enforcement officer tells you to withdraw THEN you can be criminally liable for standing within 25 feet. The law enforcement officer has to issue you that direction in writing. The writing has to say that you interfered on that day-not yesterday or the day before. They have to issue an order in writing AND writing has to include specific things. A verbal order to withdraw does not make you liable under the bill).
Is this an appropriate use of law enforcement? Law enforcement will be outside abortion clinics 6-7 days a week rather than protecting people from violent offenders.
D. In addition to the penalties described in subsection B or C, any person who violates subsection B or a third or subsequent offense of subsection C is subject to a civil penalty in an amount not to exceed (i) $10,000 for a nonviolent physical obstruction, (ii) $15,000 for a violent physical obstruction, and (iii) $25,000 for any subsequent violation.
Sections B, C, and D provide penalties, they are separate penalties for different acts. Section E says penalties under C and D can’t be imposed if the signage isn’t there but you can still be liable under section B if signage isn’t there. Section B only penalizes you if you actually obstruct the entrance.
There are two ways you can be penalized under this law:
1.) You actually obstruct the entrance or engage in violence or destruction or property damage.
2.) You stand within 25 feet of an entrance of the clinic after receiving a written order form a law enforcement officer containing all the necessary language.
Will clinic personnel claim that sidewalk counselors are violating the law and call the law enforcement for any perceived infraction? YES
Will law enforcement make arrests and hand out more fines? Yes
The assumption is that you are guilty until proven innocent. The system is stacked against the sidewalk counselors.
This law is excessive.
It is a direct violation of first amendment rights.
Please contact your legislators today.
Join us for upcoming events!!!!
Keep on the agenda the March 18th event in Pittsboro, North Carolina.
Pittsboro, North Carolina. Wednesday, March 18th, join medical freedom advocates from Virginia and North Carolina at the Brownstone Institute’s Supper Club. This will be a delightful evening and we are excited to again join forces with the wonderful patriots in North Carolina. Please purchase your tickets today.
SATURDAY, MARCH 21ST TWO EVENTS, TWO CITIES
SATURDAY, MARCH 21ST FLOYD, VIRGINIA
JESSIE PETERMAN LIBRARY COMMUNITY ROOM, 4:15-7 PM. 321 W MAIN ST. FLOYD, VIRGINIA
DR. FUREY WILL TAKE A DEEP DIVE IN THE THE DECEPTIVE LANGUAGE OF THE PROPOSED CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS. SHARE THE WORD.
DONATIONS OF $100 WILL RECEIVE A FREE COPY OF VAX FACTS BY DR. PAUL THOMAS