Abortion curbs pass House

RICHMOND — A Republican supermajority has muscled two of the toughest anti-abortion bills in years through the Virginia House, including one that would all but outlaw the procedure by declaring the rights of persons apply from the moment sperm and egg unite.

Del. Bob Marshall’s House Bill 1 on personhood at conception passed on a 66-32 vote. On a 63-36 vote, the House passed a bill that requires women to have a “transvaginal ultrasound” before undergoing abortions.

Marshall’s bill for years had passed the conservative House only to die in a moderate Senate. This time, conservatives control the Senate after last fall’s election stripped the Democrats of power.

The ultrasound bill would constitute an unprecedented government mandate to insert vaginal ultrasonic probes into women as part of a state - ordered effort to dissuade them from terminating pregnancies, legislative opponents noted.