Charlottesville and Albemarle area delegates were a mixed bag when it came to votes in the 2007 General Assembly, according to data compiled by the pro-choice advocacy organization NARAL.

NARAL looked at House of Delegates votes on four issues in creating their scorecard for the 2007 session. The highest local scorer was David Toscano - the only Democrat among the four delegates who represent parts of the city or county - who voted with the NARAL position on all four bills. Rob Bell voted "correctly" on one of the four; delegates Watkins Abbitt and Steve Landes voted against (or did not vote) the NARAL position on all of them. The four bills (with NARAL's description of them) were:

"Right to Enjoyment of Life" (HB 2797): This legislation defines life as starting "at the moment of fertilization." If the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, this bill would have the effect of outlawing abortion in Virginia. The bill failed in the House by a vote of 53-43. Toscano and Bell voted against it while Landes voted for it. Abbitt did not vote.

Targeted Regulation of Abortion Providers (HB1883): This legislation would have required clinics that provide abortions to comply with the same standards as "ambulatory surgery centers" in order to be licesned by the Virginia Health Planning Board. The bill passed 60-35 with Del. Toscano voting against it. The bill later failed in Senate committee.

Medicaid Funding of Abortion in Cases of Rape and Incest (Budget Amendment 4-5.04) This amendment would have prohibited the General Assembly from continuing its Medicaid funding for abortions for poverty-stricken women in cases of rape, incest, and profound fetal abnormality. It passed 69-25 with Toscano voting against it.

Anesthesia for Fetuses (HB 2456): This legislation would have required that a woman having an abortion at 20 weeks or later in a pregnancy be given information on fetal anesthesia and that she be told that the fetus is likely to feel pain. It passed 69-29 (Toscano voting against) but was later killed in Senate committee.

On the Senate side, there were no votes by area senators for NARAL to score. No reproductive rights bills made it to the floor of the Senate, and neither Creigh Deeds nor Emmett Hanger sit on committees that considered, and killed, the House bills described above.

- Jim Heilman (May 8, 2007)

Source: NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia House Scorecard 2007