Eternal Vigilance...

Well, it looks like Delegate Cosgrove has backed away from the original wording of his bill... Sort of. He’s saying he’ll change the wording of the bill to apply strictly to newborns claimed to be stillborn. His “twelve-hour” timeframe was (according to him) put in for the sake of the coroner, who wouldn’t be able to determine whether an abandoned infant was stillborn or died after birth beyond that time. A reasonable request... if true.

Which, given Cosgrove’s voting history, I don’t believe for a heartbeat.

Maura over at Democracy for Virginia has updates, but it would appear that Cosgrove has gotten just a bit of bad publicity over this thing. Not to mention a slew of responses to his office. Right now it looks like he’s placing the blame on the “legislative services lawyers,” but I’m not holding out for total vindication.

But, at least in the short term, the word got out there, and the bill — as it stands — should be finished. I don’t know about you, but I’m not about to take him at his word.

We’ll be watching.