Virginia Del. Dawn Adams, a pro-abortion Democrat, apologized to her constituents Wednesday evening for cosponsoring Del. Kathy Tran’s bill that would’ve allowed abortion even after a woman goes into labor. Tran admitted her bill would allow abortion up until birth earlier this week in a now-viral video which received widespread backlash. Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam also received criticism for his comments defending leaving infants to die even after birth.
“I did not read a bill I agreed to co-patron and that wasn’t smart or typical,” Del. Adams admitted in her newsletter. “I will work harder and be better for it. By now you have heard about the abortion bill, or seen the video. I vaguely remember signing on to this, and I did this in solidarity with my colleague and as a symbolic gesture for a woman’s right to choose.”
“I am sorry that I did not exercise due diligence before this explosion of attention; had I done so, I would not have co-patroned,” she wrote, “and here is why: I thought this bill sought to solely reverse the onerous additions to the code made in 2012 by HB462. (bolding in original) While it did, it sought to do much more. Had I researched each line of removed language, I would have seen that, and known that there was more research to be done.”
Adams, a nurse practitioner, pointed out that abortion after the onset of labor in the scenario Tran was asked about goes against current Virginia law and is “different” from late term abortion.
“In 2003, the definition of partial birth infanticide was added to the code which states that any person who knowingly performs partial birth infanticide and thereby kills a human infant is guilty of a Class 4 felony (§18.2-71)- this is consistent with what the questioner in the video was describing, and not the bill submitted by Delegate Tran,” she wrote. “This remains a crime and would not be something any sane licensed physician would perform. The code is very specific and clear about what this means and it is different from an abortion, even late term.”
After deleting her social media for a few days, Tran claimed in a video Thursday that there was “misinformation” about her bill and she was only trying to ensure women could access abortion services in a timely manner.
Tran’s bill, HB 2491, was defeated by Republicans in the Virginia Assembly on Tuesday.
The bill would’ve reduced the number of doctors necessary to certify the need for a late term abortion from three to just one. It also would've allowed an abortion after the second trimester for virtually any “mental or physical health” reason.