The Senate voted 24-14 to send the bill back to Senate Education and Health Committee, with two anti-abortion Democrats abstaining.
Sen. Richard Saslaw (D-Fairfax) made the motion. Senate Majority Leader Thomas K. Norment (R-James City) agreed, saying the bill needed more time to be examined.
So, with two anti-abortion Dems abstaining from the vote (what’s THAT about?), that means only 18 of the 24 votes were Democrats and six were from GOPers. The vote isn’t up yet, but should be soon here. (I’ll be surprised if in addition to Norment if Harry Blevins, Walter Stosch, Frank Wagner and John Watkins aren’t all among the six who killed this bill.)
UPDATE: Looks like I nailed it with the list above and Frank Ruff was the 6th GOP vote against it. Here’s how the vote went –
YEAS–Barker, Blevins, Deeds, Ebbin, Edwards, Favola, Herring, Howell, Locke, Lucas, Marsden, Marsh, McEachin, Miller, J.C., Miller, Y.B., Norment, Northam, Petersen, Puller, Ruff, Saslaw, Stosch, Wagner, Watkins–24.
NAYS–Black, Carrico, Garrett, Hanger, Martin, McDougle, McWaters, Newman, Obenshain, Reeves, Smith, Stanley, Stuart, Vogel–14.
RULE 36–0.
NOT VOTING–Colgan, Puckett–2.
