Virginia General Assembly Update – Week 4
Virginia General Assembly Update – Week 4
It was a big week for bill hearings and grassroots advocacy! Here are highlights.
Virginia Pro-Life Day: Thank you to all who participated in Virginia Pro-Life Day on Wednesday! About 400 advocates for life walked the halls of the General Assembly Building to visit their legislators’ offices. They urged opposition to policies that expand abortion and support for policies that help pregnant women, their children and their families. Following these meetings, many filled St. Peter’s Pro-Cathedral for a beautiful Mass. Others provided a pro-life presence in the Senate and House galleries. Some traveled all the way from Abingdon and even Bristol to attend the day’s events!
If you were among those who visited legislators’ offices, please thank them for meeting with you, follow how they’re voting, and keep the dialogue going with them. This is the essential work of faithful citizenship!
Contraceptive Mandate: Please act now on our alert against a House bill that would require health plans to cover contraceptives and even some abortion-inducing drugs. The floor vote will be early next week!
Other Key Issues: This week, we testified against a bill to restrict rights of speech and assembly outside abortion clinics, and against a bill that would have weakened a current law that protects children from harmful THC products. We testified in favor of enhancing conscience rights for hospitals and health care professionals, creating a state adoption tax credit and child tax credit, and improving the state earned income tax credit.
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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.
