A Virginia house subcommittee on Friday defeated HB 2321, which would have banned abortion after 20 weeks post-fertilization.

A Virginia house subcommittee on Friday defeated HB 2321, which would have banned abortion after 20 weeks post-fertilization.

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A Virginia house subcommittee on Friday defeated HB 2321, which would have banned abortion after 20 weeks post-fertilization.

The measure, called the “Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act,” was nearly identical to the 20-week ban introduced and then pulled last month in the U.S. House of Representatives. Virginia was one of several states to have introduced 20-week bans in 2015, including the GOP-controlled legislatures in South Carolina, Ohio, and West Virginia.

Anti-choice Virginia lawmakers this session have been busy introducing reproductive health-related legislation. While several pro-choice bills have been defeated, the legislature has also gone forward with a radical “personhood” resolution and at least one other anti-choice bill.

Personhood laws seek to criminalize abortion with no exceptions, and effectively ban many forms of contraception, in vitro fertilization, and other reproductive health-care measures.

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“Although women should not have to justify their private medical decisions,” said Tarina Keene, executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia, “the reality is that abortion after 20 weeks is incredibly rare and happens most often under complex circumstances—the kind of situation where a woman and her doctor need every medical option available.”

“This measure was too extreme for Washington, and it is certainly too extreme for Virginia,” she said.