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HEADLINE: Emergency Birth Control Bill Falters in Va.; House-Senate Talks Deadlock on Parental Consent

BYLINE: Craig Timberg and Lisa Rein, Washington Post Staff Writers

DATELINE: RICHMOND, Feb. 23

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The Virginia legislature's effort to allow pharmacists to dispense emergency contraceptives without a prescription collapsed today as House and Senate negotiators deadlocked over whether to require that minors first obtain parental consent.

Such high-stakes stands were the rule in the General Assembly with just one day to go before adjournment Saturday.

House and Senate budget negotiators failed once again to reach a compromise on a state government spending plan or a definitive car-tax cut for the coming year, setting the stage for Gov. James S. Gilmore III (R) to impose a 70 percent tax cut on his own. Neither side held out hope late today for an agreement by adjournment. Of more than 50 bills and resolutions in negotiating conferences this afternoon, only two were resolved by the House of Delegates during a brief floor session at 4 p.m.

House Speaker S. Vance Wilkins Jr. (R-Amherst) gaveled the session to a close moments later, imploring lawmakers to settle the outstanding bills quickly so they can go home on schedule.

Among those issues unsettled as the legislature headed into its final scheduled day was Senate Bill 1244, requiring candidates to appear prominently in their campaign ads, and Senate Bill 1331, requiring students to say the Pledge of Allegiance. Also a measure allowing prosecutors to tell juries when a defendant in a drunken-driving case has refused a breath test headed toward final passage.

The push for a referendum on raising the sales tax in Northern Virginia made progress as House and Senate negotiators reached tentative agreement. Both chambers will vote Saturday on the compromise version of the measure, which would raise the sales tax by a full penny, to 5.5 percent, with half the money going to school projects and half going to transportation projects.

Republicans predicted its defeat because the House has balked at including education in the package. "It got rejected last time, so unless people change their minds, it will get rejected again," said Wilkins, who has supported a sales-tax increase in the Washington area, but only for transportation.

But Democrats got the deal they wanted and said they would rather see the bill die than to pass one that provides no money to education.

"I'm not going to give on that," said Sen. Richard L. Saslaw (D-Fairfax). "It's going to be all or nothing."

The referendum, if approved by the General Assembly and Gilmore, would happen next year. Democrats, who favor that timetable, are worried that a vote on a tax increase this November could damage their candidate for governor, Alexandria businessman Mark R. Warner.

News that the emergency contraceptives bill was in trouble swept the General Assembly this afternoon, just days after the measure won initial legislative approval. The bill would have allowed women to buy pregnancy-blocking pills within 72 hours of intercourse without a doctor's prescription.

Pharmacists, acting under a written agreement with a physician, would be allowed to sell the drugs. Doctors and nurse practitioners not only could prescribe the drugs but also dispense them. The drug regimen contains high doses of the same hormones found in birth control pills.

Del. Viola O. Baskerville (D-Richmond), the lead sponsor of House Bill 2782, announced that she would rather see the effort die than take a step backward in Virginia's traditional policy of allowing minors to act as adults when seeking contraceptives or family planning advice.

"It would defeat the whole purpose of making reproductive health choices available to teenagers," Baskerville said.

Barring a last-minute change of heart by Baskerville -- or by her opponents, who are insisting that teenagers get parental consent -- the bill faces almost certain defeat.

The bill enjoyed support in both chambers as supporters argued that it would reduce unwanted pregnancies and abortions. Opponents called it an early form of abortion because in some cases it would block a fertilized egg from becoming properly implanted in the woman's womb.

Negotiations today turned on the House's insistence that a teenager show the pharmacist or doctor that she had consent from a parent. In exchanges today, Baskerville offered a compromise requiring pharmacists and doctors to advise a minor to consult a parent. But the proposal failed to satisfy lawmakers who said parents should know if their child is taking a drug with possible side effects.

"If I'm a parent of a minor daughter and she's taking the pill and she gets sick, the pharmacist isn't going to pay those medical bills, I am," said Del. Phillip A. Hamilton (R-Newport News).

Even as prospects for a deal dwindled, Baskerville and family planning activists declared victory, saying that in a few short weeks, they succeeded in making millions of Virginia women aware that morning-after pills exist.

"A month ago, we didn't even think this would come out of committee," Baskerville said. "Now we've put it on the radar screen."

Bennet Greenberg, of Planned Parenthood of Virginia, said, "One of our goals was to educate women in Virginia, and we feel we did that on a large scale."

Also today:

* A compromise version of the bill allowing prosecutors to tell juries that defendants in drunken-driving cases refused a breath test passed the Senate. The bill would allow prosecutors to use the refusal to explain a lack of blood-alcohol evidence. It would not allow prosecutors to use that refusal as evidence of guilt, as they had hoped. It faces a House vote.

* The Senate approved a bill that would repeal Alexandria's rule prohibiting members of the public from bringing concealed weapons into city government buildings. It faces a vote in the House, where passage is likely.

* House and Senate negotiators agreed to a compromise version of the bill requiring students to say the Pledge of Allegiance. It would let students skip the pledge if they cite a reason for their objection, and it would leave the penalty for disrupting the pledge up to local school officials. The bill faces votes Saturday.

Staff writer R.H. Melton contributed to this report.



LOAD-DATE: April 02, 2002