"Billboards with slogans like "Will Virginia make you travel out of state for birth control pills?" and "Think Virginia won't deny you birth control pills? Think again" are scheduled to go up around Richmond this week.

Planned Parenthood groups said the messages intend to show "how extreme the Virginia General Assembly has become," but abortion opponents called it "a campaign of misinformation."

"One must consider if this is a veiled attempt at distracting citizens from the overwhelming defeat of the pro-abortion agenda during this year's General Assembly," said Victoria Cobb, spokeswoman for the Family Foundation of Virginia.

The winners and losers in the abortion battles during the assembly session will be decided today when the General Assembly reconvenes at noon to reconsider legislation amended or vetoed by Gov. Mark R. Warner.

In the regular session, legislators approved a bill that restricts so-called partial-birth infanticide, a bill requiring a parent to give permission for a minor child to have an abortion and a bill that would allow the slogan "Choose Life" on state-issued license plates.

Warner amended the first two bills, bringing them closer in line with the positions of abortion-rights organizations like Planned Parenthood, and vetoed the third bill saying political slogans don't belong on license plates.

But because the bills passed the House and Senate with sizable margins, abortion opponents feel Warner's amendments and veto may not stand when votes are taken today.

"Abortion proponents could not have asked for more than what the governor gave them," Cobb said. "The amendments clearly show to whom Governor Warner answers - the extreme left of his political partly for whom abortion is the ultimate litmus test."

Cobb said the Family Foundation has been urging its supporters to call and thank their legislators and ask them to maintain their votes so that the amendments are overridden.

Abortion-rights advocates realize they have an uphill fight.

"We think the amendments are going to have a hard time because of the nature of the debate during the session and the debate that's been happening ever since the governor issued his amendments," said Bennet Greenberg, lobbyist for Planned Parenthood Advocates of Virginia.

"We are prepared for any of the possibilities, and we certainly hope the legislature will try to get it right this time."

David Nova, president of Planned Parenthood Advocates of Virginia, said the organization started planning for the billboard campaign after the defeat of a bill that would have clarified that contraception is not abortion.

"This is the quickest we could do it," Nova said.

The 11 billboards will be up for a month, and similar media campaigns will be launched in other areas of the state. The billboards direct people to a Web site for more information.

The cost of the billboards is about $15,000, Nova said, and they are part of a larger awareness campaign.

"I suspect that over the course of the next five years, and we do see this as a long-term project, we will be spending more than a million dollars," said Nova.

"We see this as an effort that will have to continue through the current governor's term and well into whoever the next governor is until we can turn this around. Given the state of the current legislature, this is not going to be an easy thing to turn around."

Cobb said the messages don't accurately depict the stance of her group and others that oppose abortion.

"The idea that conservatives want to force women to leave Virginia to get birth control must be Planned Parenthood's idea of an April Fool's joke," Cobb said. "It is so ridiculous and without merit that it simply cannot be taken seriously."

She did say that her group opposed emergency contraception birth-control pills that are taken after unprotected sexual intercourse to prevent pregnancy.

"A birth-control pill is used on an ongoing basis to prevent ovulation," Cobb said. "Emergency contraception is designed to be an emergency back-door recourse for irresponsible sexual behavior." " (Tammie Smith, Richmond Times-Dispatch, April 2, 2003)

Editor's Note: HB 1402 Parental consent for abortion sponsored by Richard Black passed in enrolled form in the House 71-Y to 29-N. It passed in the Senate in enrolled form 27-Y to 12-N.

HB1541 Partial Birth Infanticide bill sponsored by Richard Black passed in enrolled form in the House 77-Y to 22-N and in the Senate in enrolled form 22-Y to 12-N.

HB1406 Choose Life license plate bill passed the House in enrolled form 60-Y to 39-N with 1-A. With 2/3 affirmitive votes required for passage, the House sustained Governor's veto.