‘A slap in the face’: Va. House GOP forced to reject own member’s anti-abortion bill - WTOP News
wtop.com
Democrats in the Virginia House of Delegates forced their Republican colleagues to take an up-or-down vote Monday on a sweeping anti-abortion bill one lawmaker called “a slap in the face” to women who have been raped or suffer life-threatening complications from a pregnancy.

So for those not following VA politics, I’ll do up a bit of a TL;DR:

Pre-Nov-2023:

  • Governor: Republican
  • Legislature: 1 house was Dem, 1 house was Republican
  • Abortion was used to try to drum up support to make both legislative houses Republican in the Nov 2023 elections (among other things)

Nov 2023 elections happen.

  • Plan backfires. Dems get both legislative houses, but Gov seat is still Republican.

New Legislative session starts for 2024.

  • Republican filed a bill to remove funding for abortions
  • Dems were like “lol no”, wanted to bring a floor vote on the bill to get votes recorded on where everyone stands on it
  • Republicans tried to revoke and water down bill, Dems were like “lol no”
  • Dems forced the bill to floor vote
  • Almost every single Republican decided to vote “no” on bill, so it failed by 97 votes (out of 100).
  • brbposting@sh.itjust.works
    17·
    9 months ago

    Del. Marcus Simon, D-Fairfax, said it’s not uncommon for lawmakers to have their own bills turned against them.

    “It’s happened to me. I’ve had some bad ideas before,” Simon said. “You put those bills in, and anything can happen. And you’ve got to be willing to deal with the consequences.”

    [I want to believe that’s] refreshingly honest!