Over one month removed from Virginia Governor Ralph Northam‘s (D) highly controversial radio show comments regarding “infanticide,” a grassroots organization of pro-lifers is planning to voice their disgust and convene in the state capital of Richmond on April 6th for a “Day of Mourning.” Virginia pastors are also invited to join the event’s speakers to “repent for the church’s 46 years of silence and apathy.”
Governor Northam doubled down on his support for Delegate Kathy Tran’s (D-Fairfax) sweeping late-term abortion bill during the 2019 legislative session, just after a similar situation occurred in New York. Governor Andrew Cuomo (D) signed a bill into law to allow women to seek abortions after a fetus is 24 weeks old if the mother’s life or health is threatened by the pregnancy, also making it legal for women to have an abortion at any time if the fetus is not viable.
Following the development in New York, the spire atop New York City’s Freedom Tower, standing 1,776 feet above the ground, was lit bright pink in solidarity with the activists and lawmakers who helped push the monumental change.
The abortion bill supported by a majority of Virginia Democrats, however, goes even further. Delegate Tran, in her presentation to a House of Delegates subcommittee, was asked:
“Where it’s obvious that a woman is about to give birth, that she has physical signs that she is about to give birth, would that still be a point at which she could request an abortion if she was so certified?…She’s dilating, I’m asking if your bill allows that.”
Tran responded, “My bill would allow that, yes.”
The legislation, also known as the “Repeal Act,” would do away with restrictions on third trimester abortions, allowing abortion doctors to self-certify the necessity of late-term procedures, eliminate informed consent requirements, repeal abortion clinic health and safety standards, permit late-term abortions to be performed in outpatient clinics, remove ultrasound requirements, and eliminate Virginia’s 24-hour waiting period.
Days later, during an address on WTOP’s “Ask The Governor” segment, Northam commented on a situation that the bill would influence.
“If a mother is in labor, I can tell you exactly what would happen,” he said. “The infant would be delivered. The infant would be kept comfortable. The infant would be resuscitated if that’s what the mother and the family desired, and then a discussion would ensue between the physicians and the mother.”
Conservatives across the Commonwealth and the nation at-large quickly condemned Northam’s rhetoric, charging that he “supports infanticide.” The governor’s comments even got a mention during President Donald Trump‘s “State of the Union” address in late January, with the commander in chief charging lawmakers “to pass legislation to prohibit the late-term abortion of children who can feel pain in the mother’s womb.”
According to the event’s Facebook page, pro-life advocates will meet at the Greater Richmond Convention Center in downtown at 403 North 3rd Street on Saturday, April 6, between 1:00 p.m. and 4:00 p.m., where they expect thousands to be in attendance to “stand in solidarity with the unborn and mourn over the sin of abortion.”
“We are calling for a National Day of Mourning and repentance,” the group’s organizer says on the page. “We are in desperate need for God to move upon the hearts of young and old in our nation. If our hearts do not break over the killing of these little image bearers of God in the womb, we are dead inside!”
Organizers are asking attendees to do three things:
- Wear black
- Fast and pray
- Repent for the sin of abortion
Some of the speakers set to appear at the event are: authors and entrepreneurs Jason and David Benham; the “Activist Mommy” Elizabeth Johnston; former statewide Republican candidate and Bishop E. W. Jackson; eight-year-old abortion survivor Blythe Mullen; and Dallas, Texas-based singer, songwriter, and worship leader Anna Byrd.
Three weeks ago, over 4,000 people attended the group’s event in Albany, New York, with 40,000 more watching via livestream.