RICHMOND, Va. — Richard Black sent his colleagues in the Virginia House of Delegates a package containing a plastic model of an 11-week-old fetus. With it, Black included a letter asking, “Would you kill this child?”

“Abortionists kill most babies at this stage of development,” he wrote, referring to the well-developed and “unmistakably human” first-trimester fetus. “The struggling infants are chemically scalded or slashed apart with jagged knives.”

Some of the 40 members of Virginia's Senate complained about Black's Feb. 3 missive. One argued it created a “hostile work environment.”

But Black, a Catholic, is unapologetic. He said in the letter that he believes abortions will end within the next 10 years and Virginia will “lead the way in restoring the sanctity of human life.”

Recent developments give him good reason for optimism. The Republican-controlled Virginia General Assembly has been considering an “unprecedented” number of pro-life bills, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported Feb. 6.

Black is the sponsor of a number of them. Two of the bills have passed both houses: one that would require parental consent for abortion, the other seeking to ban what it calls “partial-birth infanticide.”

While much of the attention of the pro-life movement is focused on the U.S. Congress, with its own partial-birth abortion bill and competing measures on cloning, there has been a groundswell of pro-life legislation on the state level across the nation.

Mary Balch, director of state legislation for National Right to Life, explained that more pro-life legislators have been sent to statehouses this year.

“It looks very encouraging that more states will pass pro-life protective language,” she said.

Calls for comment from National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League Pro-Choice America were not answered.

But a Jan. 31 message on its Web site said in the 13 years the pro-abortion group has been tracking state legislation, it has never seen the volume “or voracity with which anti-choice state legislators in the 2003 legislative session are trying to both ban abortion outright and to restrict access so severely that the right is illusory.”

‘Looking Good’

From her perspective, Balch noted that Virginia, West Virginia and Georgia are “looking good.” And Washington state has “gotten further than [it has] in many years, managing to pass a pro-life bill out of one house. That would indicate we have a stronger presence in that legislature.”

And, she added, “we fully expect to have continued success in Utah.” She said even one of the most difficult states, New Hampshire, shows glimmers of hope.

“New Hampshire is the most unchurched state in the nation,” said state Rep. Barbara Hagan, a Republican. “While we are looked at as being conservative, it's only regarding money. It is sad to say we have not yet been able to break through the stronghold that pro-abortion forces have had here.”

A bill she sponsored, which would have recognized that life begins at fertilization, was defeated in the New Hampshire House of Representatives on Feb. 6.

Rep. James Craig, a Democrat, criticized the “strong” language” of the bill and questioned its constitutionality, according to the Associated Press. States must follow the U.S.

Supreme Court's ruling in Roe v. Wade, he insisted.

But Hagan also blamed the state's Republican leadership, which she thinks “wishes the issue would just go away.”

“They sneer when they see pro-life bills coming. They don't want to deal with it. It's really unfortunate that it's the money, the money, the money. That's all the leadership cares about,” she said, referring to the focus on the state budget and budget cuts.

Nine pro-life bills were introduced in New Hampshire this session, including a safe-haven bill and a parental-notification bill. The safe-haven bill, which would implement procedures for a hospital or other “safe haven” to assume temporary care and control of an abandoned child, passed the House on Feb. 6 by a wide margin.

Educating Voters

Virginia's Black wants people to better understand the pro-abortion position of Gov. Mark Warner, who has signaled his intent to veto the parental-consent and partial-birth abortion bills in April.

There is a slight possibility the governor's veto could be overridden “if all of our senators hold,” Black contends. “But there will be enormous money and power to try to sway one vote the governor's way.”

It was an attempt to help solidify Senate votes that Black sent his letter with the baby model.

Warner is “very passionately pro-abortion, but the interesting thing is, the public is not keenly aware of it because he has not had to confront this in the open,” Black said. “We hope to get a couple of these bills past his veto. But in any event, even if we don't, we will at least clearly label Mark Warner, and people will understand what his positions are.”

Nearby, West Virginia is also making progress. Its “Women's Right to Know Bill” has a “good chance of passage,” according to Balch.

But a similar measure might not fare as well in Georgia. The “Woman's Right to Know” bill there faces opposition by powerful Democrats in the House of Representatives.

Sponsored by Sen. Don Cheeks, a Republican, the legislation would require women wait an additional 24 hours before getting an abortion, allowing women time to read prescribed educational materials on the procedure. The bill passed a Senate committee 7-4 on Feb. 3, but Rep. Calvin Smyre, a Democrat, has warned he will make it difficult for the bill to get out of his committee.

For the pro-life movement, it's an uphill climb. But every step forward is cheered.

“The pro-life movement has done very well in the states this past election cycle,” said Balch, speaking of Georgia, West Virginia, Virginia, New Hampshire, Kentucky and Utah. “While we may not get an actual win in all the states, we will move closer to getting those laws because of the gains we've made. If we continue in this direction, we will ultimately pass protection legislation in all the states where we've had these pro-life gains.”

Mary Ann Sullivan writes from New Durham, New Hampshire.