As of January 14, 2002, the Health, Welfare and Institutions Docket included:

Robert McDonnell's HB 296 Premarital counseling; requirements bill requiring "a couple to receive, prior to the marriage, a minimum of eight hours of counseling concerning the nature and responsibilities of a marital relationship"

[In another context, University of Virginia professor Steve Nock has argued that the cause of poverty in this country is divorce and nonwedlock childbearing.

What role do you believe the Commonwealth of Virginia should have in marriage and divorce?]

Since January 14th, the House Health, Welfare and Institutions Committee has received

Delegate Robert Marshall's House Bill 1153 which "establishes a new requirement for the Board and Department of Health to license as abortion clinics any facility, other than a hospital, in which more than five first tri-mester abortions are performed per month. Each facility will be required to comply with specific licensing requirements. This bill is similar to the bills introduced in past years by Delegate Marshall that have been successfully opposed as targeting abortion providers and not dealing with all medical procedures performed" (Ben Greenberg, electronic mail, January 15, 2002)

and

his House Bill 1177 "to make a physician guilty of a class 6 felony if he/she fails to treat an abortion complication after the physician performed the abortion without parental consent" (Ben Greenberg, electronic mail, January 15, 2002).