What I Learned in Virginia Today

by: tlcasey

Wed Feb 29, 2012 at 10:31:41 AM EST

Early this morning, I learned that Governor McDonnell had ordered a SWAT Team to cover a Candlelight Vigil I attended the night before at the Governor's Mansion.  Riot police were hiding in the bushes, while my two small children and I sang, "This Little Light of Mine."

In the mid-morning, I learned that compassion and logic do not have to be mutually exclusive, when a Virginia Senate Finance Committee quashed a House bill that would have cut funding to low-income women seeking abortions when a physician had certified a gross abnormality and malformity in their pregnancy.

In the afternoon, however, I learned that, as a woman, I do not have the capacity to make an informed decision without my physician performing what is deemed to be an unnecessary medical procedure.  

I learned that 21 Virginia Senators are better equipped and trained to prescribe medical procedures than treating physicians.  I also learned that 21 Virginia Senators can mandate a medical procedure on a woman even when the medical community deems the procedure medically unnecessary.

I learned that 21 Virginia Senators can mandate a medical procedure on a woman but refuse to require an insurance company to cover the procedure.  I also learned that 21 Virginia Senators can mandate a medical procedure but refuse to pay for the procedure if a woman cannot afford it.

I learned that 21 Virginia Senators can mandate a medical procedure even when the procedure itself does not provide the information sought for "informed consent."

I learned that the flip phrases "jelly on the belly" and "abortion is a matter of lifestyle convenience," which I personally heard in the halls of my state legislature, translate to actual votes and platform positions of disengaged legislators.

I learned that the prophetic phrase of Orwellian logic, "Ignorance is Strength," came true in Virginia - not in 1984, but in 2012.