‘Staggering admission’ by Virginia’s governor
BY PETER D. GASPER
On Jan. 8, Knights of Columbus Council #14775 completed installation of 3,000 tiny white flags in front of St. Peter Catholic Church. The Council Life Director Jeff Knight stated, “Each tiny white flag memorializes one of the more than 3,000 victims of abortion whose lives are ended each day in America.”
The next day, Jan. 9, “HB2491 Abortion; eliminate certain requirements,” introduced by Delegate Kathy K.L. Tran (Virginia House District 42), was “Prefiled and ordered printed.”
On Jan. 18, a nearly full bus of St. Peter Catholic Church parishioners, Knights and their families departed St. Peter’s bound for the Annual March for Life in Washington, D.C. Our Pastor led us in praying the Rosary for an end to abortion and that those who promote it may come to see the error in their ways. It was a prayerful and memorable day for all in the fight for the protection of human life from conception to natural death.
On Jan. 28, Subcommittee #4 of the Virginia House Committee for Courts of Justice recommended laying HB2491 on the table.
On Jan. 30, Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam stated that the controversy regarding remarks made by Del. Kathy Tran on her late-term abortion bill was “overblown.” Then, concerning a situation “where there may be severe deformities [or] a fetus that’s nonviable,” the governor explained: “The infant would be delivered; the infant would be kept comfortable; the infant would be resuscitated if that’s what the mother and the family desire, and then a discussion would ensue between the physicians and the mother.”
On Jan. 31, Most Reverend Michael F. Burbidge, Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Arlington, characterized HB2491 as “extreme abortion legislation culminating in an attempt to pass a law similar to what New York recently passed.” He continued with: “Abortion of a baby in the final stage of pregnancy borders on infanticide. Our governor, however, may be willing to cross that border and go even farther.”
To the people of the Commonwealth of Virginia, especially those here in Rappahannock County, the people whom we cheerfully serve with works of Charity, Unity, Fraternity, and Patriotism, let it be known — We stand with Bishop Burbidge and all our brother Knights of Columbus in opposing the substance of Delegate Tran’s bill HB2491.
Furthermore, with our Bishop, we, the Knights of Council #14755, decry the “staggering admission” by Governor Northam that “he may be willing to cross that border [on infanticide] and go even farther.”
Vivat Jesus! – Semper!