By Jennifer Lawhorne

Women lawmakers lambasted the General Assembly’s approval of bills that require a 24-hour waiting period for abortions during a recent meeting of the Women's Roundtable.

If signed into law, the bills would require women who wish to terminate their pregnancies to seek counseling and wait 24 hours before receiving an abortion.

The bills, also called informed consent, were a victory for anti-abortion groups and an alarm to abortion-rights groups, which believe that a 24-hour waiting period insults a woman’s intelligence.

"It says to women that you are too dumb to know what you are doing," said Sen. Leslie Byrne, D-Falls Church.

The weekly discussion, sponsored by the League of Women Voters of Virginia, served as a forum for the legislators to vent their frustrations.

Last month, Byrne tried to introduce the Equal Rights Amendment for Virginia ratification, but her measure was killed in committee. Passage of the ERA would make it unconstitutional to discriminate on the basis of sex.

She said that if there were a law such as the ERA on the books, a bill like "informed consent" would never be passed.

"It discriminates on the face of it because we don’t have a law that does not allow sexual discrimination," Byrne said.

The eight female senators in the General Assembly, all Democrats, voted against the bill. Only one Republican voted against it.

Byrne warned the audience of women lobbyists and citizens to remember in this year’s election.

"When you’re in an abusive situation, you get out of it. And there’s an election coming up, and I want you to think about that person who voted for informed consent," she said. "I will not be a traitor to my gender."

Delegate Viola Baskerville, D-Richmond, rallied support for legislation she has sponsored. One of her bills, which would make the morning-after pill more available to women, is on its third reading in the House of Delegates.

However, the bill is not in its original form. An amendment was added that would require adult consent for minors who wish to take the pill. Baskerville said the change would prevent minors from seeking the pill.

Sen. Yvonne Miller, D-Norfolk, also spoke for legislation she sponsored.

She also urged the participants to attend redistricting hearings. The state redraws district lines every 10 years to adjust concentrations of populations.

She said people should make sure that their neighborhoods are not split and to try to keep the district lines as similar as possible.

"Your presence is needed now more than ever," she said.

The Women’s Roundtable serves as a forum for female legislators to promote their legislation and to talk about other bills that could affect women.

Connie Houston, president of the League of Women Voters of Virginia, said the roundtable discussion has been going on since the mid-‘80s.