13th District Democratic candidate Bruce Roemmelt (the firefighter, educator, and veteran) is now Dr. Bruce Roemmelt, after earning his doctorate degree with his dissertation entitled:

The Influence of an Effective Model of Performance Delivered via Distance Learning on Emotional Intelligence Levels of Students in an Undergraduate Leadership Course

Anyway, Bruce is one smart guy, in addition to being awesome as is. [Not neccesarily for his love of anchovies].

Bruce Roemmelt is running against one of the worst, most backward, ardently radically conservative delegates in the entire commonwealth, a scourge to progress everywhere, Delegate Robert G. Marshall. His accomplishments in the General Assembly are not friendly.

Here is a sampler of the accomplishments of Delegate Bob Marshall over the past three years.

2005
HB 1807-This bill would have made it a felony to provide contraception to minors if it was speculated that the minor was engaging in sex with someone three years or older.

Why three years? Anyway, the main fallacy of this bill is that if you know someone is having sex, you are essentially forcing them to become pregnant! It makes it a felony to prevent pregnancy. Ultimately, trying to foster ignorance of contraception is not going to help anyone, and I think it’s not an illogical leap to say that eliminating contraception will only lead to more abortions, because it has been proven that virginity pledges and abstinence education are rife with errors and are ineffective, as evidenced by this Congressional report [213k PDF, 26 pages] for the House Committee on Government Reform, the executive summary of which states:

Abstinence-Only Curricula Contain False Information about the Effectiveness of Contraceptives. Many of the curricula misrepresent the effectiveness of condoms in preventing sexually transmitted diseases and pregnancy. One curriculum says that “the popular claim that ‘condoms help prevent the spread of STDs,’ is not supported by the data”; another states that “[i]n heterosexual sex, condoms fail to prevent HIV approximately 31% of the time”; and another teaches that a pregnancy occurs one out of every seven times that couples use condoms. These erroneous statements are presented as proven scientific facts.

Abstinence-Only Curricula Contain False Information about the Risks of Abortion. One curriculum states that 5% to 10% of women who have legal abortions will become sterile; that “[p]remature birth, a major cause of mental retardation, is increased following the abortion of a first pregnancy”; and that “[t]ubal and cervical pregnancies are increased following abortions.” In fact, these risks do not rise after the procedure used in most abortions in the United States.

Abstinence-Only Curricula Blur Religion and Science. Many of the curricula present as scientific fact the religious view that life begins at conception. For example, one lesson states: “Conception, also known as fertilization, occurs when one sperm unites with one egg in the upper third of the fallopian tube. This is when life begins.” Another curriculum calls a 43-day-old fetus a “thinking person.”

Abstinence-Only Curricula Treat Stereotypes about Girls and Boys as Scientific Fact. One curriculum teaches that women need “financial support,” while men need “admiration.” Another instructs: “Women gauge their happiness and judge their success on their relationships.
Men’s happiness and success hinge on their accomplishments.”

Abstinence-Only Curricula Contain Scientific Errors. In numerous instances, the abstinence-only curricula teach erroneous scientific information. One curriculum incorrectly lists exposure to sweat and tears as risk factors for HIV transmission. Another curriculum states that “twenty-four chromosomes from the mother and twenty-four chromosomes from the father join to create this new individual”; the correct number is 23.

Proponents of this hogwash such as Delegate Marshall feel that lying to teens is the most effective means of controlling teen pregnancy, and try to restrict access to contraceptions in hopes that teens will listen.

This bill was co-sponsored by Dick Black.

Status: Tabled 22-0 in committee.

While we’re on this subject, Marshall also tried to stop the morning after pill from being available on college campuses with HB 1813, regardless to whether the pregnancy was in case of rape. Marshall’s backward conservatism flies straight in the face of all logic. His loyalty to medieval beliefs forces rape victims, in his dream land, to give birth, with no contraception or abortion allowed. That’s right. Been raped? Don’t call for Bob Marshall.

Status: Tabled 22-0 in committee.

Marshall seems to enjoy thumbing his nose into the affairs of the opposite sex. Reading his legislation teaches me many things that were never mentioned in sex ed. For instance, Marshall (who isn’t a doctor), tried to make it a felony with HB 1841 to perform a menstrual extraction without a pregnancy test.

What on earth? What does he know about “menstrual extractions”? What do I know? Let the doctors do their job. Bizarre. Just bizarre.

Status: Tabled 20-0 in committee.

At this point you may be noticing a pattern with Delegate Marshall’s harebrained bills.

• He is ridiculously ineffective, being completely unable to get much passed.
• He is obsessed with harebrained legislation dealing with sex and menstruation.

He cares not about, say, transportation or gangs. Instead, he focuses on issues he, I, or any of us have any business worrying about. I cannot fathom his obsession with such subjects (I, for one, being the naive male, had never heard of a “menstrual extraction” until researching his legislation for this article.).

Let us move on.

2004
Marshall actually does care about something other than the bodily functions of women (”girly problems” as termed by a friend of mine)–he also cares about uprooting the balance of power between the three branches of government with the astonishing HB 727, which provided for the impeachment of a judge who ruled in favor of same-sex marriage.

Way to let justice take its course. This blatant violation of the separation of power defies all explanation. The legislature cannot terrorize judges by ramming their opinions down their throats and threatening their positions in order to skew the courts in their favor. Despicable. This is America. Read the Constitution. Try to name all three branches of the government.

The legislature does not interfere with the fairness and impartiality of the judicial system! One ruling–where there was no improper conduct–should not be grounds for impeachment.

Status: Passed By Indefinitely 19-3 in committee

2003
Delegate Marshall, as indicated above, does not believe in much of anything progressive. I am convinced he does not have much faith in science, either. HB 2366 would have banned creating new stem cell lines with language prohibiting “destruction of embryos”.

Marshall, like many conservatives, values a bundle of cells over the potential to help millions of Americans suffering from debiliating disease. Have you no shame? Our backwards conservatives are preventing America from taking the lead in research into cures through stem cells, and have allowed European and Asian countries to bypass us. Shame.

Status: Tabled 22-0 in committee

In this trip down memory lane we revisit yet again Bob Marshall’s rather creepy interest in matters relating to sex, reproduction, and girly problems, with HB 1547, whch would have made it a felony to perform an abortion on a minor if the parents were not paying for it, with no exception for cases of parental rape. This glaring omission traps victims of parental rape into asking their parents for an abortion, defying any rational logic yet again.

Status: Tabled 22-0 in committee

2002
By now it has probably become clear that Delegate Marshall cares little, if at all, about the health of a woman when attempting to ban abortion. His HB 1154 attempted to ban the so-called “partial birth abortion” without, once again, an adequate exception for the health of a mother. Governor Warner vetoed this bill, and articulated the reasons thusly:

House Bill 1154 would prohibit doctors from performing a certain late term abortion procedure. Although I firmly support the decision in Roe v. Wade and trust the women of Virginia to make responsible choices affecting their lives and their health care, I am opposed to all post-viability abortions except to protect the mother’s life or health. I would sign a bill banning the abortion procedure described in HB 1154 if it contained such exceptions as required under the Constitution. HB 1154 does not.

The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Stenberg v. Carhart, 530 U.S. 914, 120 Sup. Ct. 2597 (2000), is the law of the land with regard to regulation of late term abortion procedures. HB 1154 fails to satisfy the requirements of Carhart in at least two respects. First, it does not provide an adequate exception to protect the health of the mother in cases of post-viability abortions. The health exception provided in HB 1154 applies “only if, in appropriate medical judgment, [the pregnant woman] suffers from an illness, injury, disease, disorder or other medical condition that so complicates her pregnancy as to necessitate the performance of such a procedure in order to avert her death or avoid a serious risk of substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function.”

In other words, in some cases, HB 1154 would not allow a doctor to perform the procedure banned by HB 1154 when it would be safer than other procedures. Any health exception consistent with constitutional requirements must permit women to have access to the safest medical procedures. As explained in Carhart, “[m]edical treatments and procedures are often considered appropriate (or inappropriate) in light of estimated comparative health risks (and health benefits) in particular cases.” Carhart, 530 U.S. at 937. A federal court in Ohio recently struck down a statute with language similar to HB 1154 precisely because the so-called health exception was drawn too narrowly. As the court explained, “logic dictates that when a physical health problem requires a woman to undergo a post-viability abortion, she must be permitted to use the least risky procedure . . .” Women’s Medical Professional Corporation v. Taft, 162 F. Supp.2d. 929, 961 (S.D. Ohio 2001). I agree with that view.

Second, as passed, HB 1154 lacks an appropriate exemption for certain previability, second trimester procedures. It is settled law that a procedure known as a “D&E” may not be constitutionally banned in the early stages of pregnancy. HB 1154 appears to exempt only some D & E procedures. If HB 1154 is signed into law, some physicians may avoid performing otherwise safe D&E procedures due to fear of prosecution. Hence, I believe HB 1154 risks imposing an undue burden on women seeking previability second trimester abortions.

Although the procedure described in HB 1154 is rarely used, it is deeply troubling to me, as it is to many Virginians. I have said I would sign a bill limiting that procedure if the bill appears to be constitutional. I am not persuaded, however, that HB 1154 satisfies the constitutional requirements articulated by our nation’s highest court. I believe that allowing HB 1154 to become law would result in a costly and protracted legal challenge, with no ultimate benefit to the citizens of Virginia. I must, therefore, veto this bill.

Status: Veto sustained 24-17

In short, Delegate Bob Marshall is ineffective, and focuses his time on regressive bills that fly in the face of the public opinion. 13th District voters should be, as I am, absolutely horrified at the blind loyalty to rabid and extremist conservatism.

Elect an effective leader to the House of Delegates. Firefighter. Educator. Veteran. Doctorate.

Bruce Roemmelt for 13th District Delegate.