RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - A day after Virginia Republican legislators dropped a bitterly contested requirement that women seeking abortions undergo invasive ultrasound imaging, a carbon copy bill awaits an uncertain fate before an early morning Senate committee.
Del. Kathy Byron's House version of the bill comes before the Senate Education and Health Committee on Thursday.
The House voted to only require external ultrasounds after Republican Gov. Bob McDonnell withdrew his support for procedures requiring insertion of a wand-like device that emits ultrasonic waves used to create fetal images.
That bill now returns to the Senate, where its sponsor, Sen. Jill Vogel, says she will strike it.
The panel will also consider legislation that would confer legal "personhood" to embryos and criminalize their destruction if the 1973 Supreme Court ruling that legalized abortions is overturned.
