Press Release from Stevens Miller*

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Stevens Miller (D-Dulles), 703-405-6882, steve@millerhousehold.com

Supervisor Stevens Miller's Response to Bob Marshall's Insults to Women and Their Children with Special Needs

Loudoun, VA USA – February 23, 2010

I condemn and reject as inhumane, inaccurate, and inappropriate the remarks attributed in the press recently to Delegate Bob Marshall (R-13). According to NBC , Marshall said this:

“The number of children who are born subsequent to a first abortion with handicaps has increased dramatically. Why? Because when you abort the first born of any, nature takes its vengeance on the subsequent children.”

“In the Old Testament, the first born of every being, animal and man, was dedicated to the Lord. There’s a special punishment Christians would suggest.”

The cruelty to parents of children with special needs—as well as to those children themselves—of such remarks is shocking. Further, it suggests a dangerous willingness to use legislative power to enact Mr. Marshall's personal views of the meaning of the Christian Bible. That's because he made his outrageous remarks at a press conference opposing state funding for Planned Parenthood, which Marshall falsely states receives half-a-million dollars from Virginia. The actual amount, in the form of Medicaid reimbursements, is $35,000.

All of this arises now because the legislature is considering allocating voluntarily paid monies used to purchase license tags that will say, "Trust Women, Respect Choice," to support Planned Parenthood's health-care mission. Virginia already allocates the voluntarily paid money for "Choose Life" license plates to anti-choice advocates, so this would only balance the options for Virginians to express themselves and support their own positions.

I support the right of every Virginian to practice religion or not, as they each see fit. I also support the right of every woman to make her own choices about reproduction, health-care, and her own body. I will never support any elected official in an attempt to use the power of legislation to enact religious law. This is an alarming trend in the Commonwealth, and must be confronted as what it is: an unconstitutional effort to make selected divine scriptures into Virginia state law.

I will have more to say on this issue soon. Because Del. Marshall and I share several thousand constituents, however, I wanted to make my feelings and views known, so that our citizens will know that not all of their elected officials believe God is punishing them for acting on their rights.

*Disclosure statement: I'm married to Stevens Miller.