Relentless focus on social issues

In claiming a sweeping mandate at the polls last fall, Republican leaders insisted they would focus their newfound clout on legislative measures that would help get Virginians back to work.

The session is half over. Virginians are still waiting.

In the past month, Republicans have repeatedly diverted their attention to the same old social battles, the same old wedge issues that have divided people across the commonwealth and country for years.

The result has been an attempt to transform Virginia government into a force both more intrusive and less responsive.

It’s difficult to reconcile the oft-stated embrace of limited government with a push to control what medical procedures a pregnant woman must undergo and when.

Yet Republicans did exactly that when they decreed that women seeking an abortion submit to an ultrasound — in some cases, an invasive, transvaginal procedure — and then wait as long as 24 hours before terminating a pregnancy.

The underlying motivation, of course, is to restrict access to a legal procedure. Proponents described the measure as simply a way to provide women with information necessary to make an informed decision, and pro-life groups have supported it as a way to reduce abortion. But research has shown the required viewing of an ultrasound actually can have the opposite effect.

The tension between smaller government and intrusions into the doctor-patient relationship was on display on other subjects; in most cases, intrusion won.

House Republicans voted to ban the use of public money for abortion in cases where doctors certify a fetus will be born with a major, incapacitating disability or health condition.

Information — the goal of the ultrasound bill — wasn’t nearly as important when it came to another subject. House Republicans voted to eliminate a requirement that the state provide information to parents of sixth-grade girls about a vaccine against human papillomavirus. HPV is the most common sexually transmitted infection in the U.S., and a cause of cervical cancer, which kills 4,000 Americans every year.

Party members also remain steadfastly opposed to the federal Affordable Care Act and acquiesced to Gov. Bob McDonnell, who discouraged any effort to establish a state-based health exchange that complies with the federal law.

Several health-care industry reps have pleaded with lawmakers to act soon so that companies will have time to prepare. But none of the proposals has received a full vote in either chamber.

Meanwhile, measures to loosen restrictions for gun purchases and tighten access to voting have passed, as has a bill ensuring that millions of taxpayer dollars continue to subsidize private adoption-placement organizations that discriminate against certain classes of taxpayers, whether based on sexual orientation, religion or other factors.

Republican leaders say they haven’t been distracted or overreached in the past month. They note, correctly, that those divisive bills represent a fraction of the ones considered in the General Assembly.

But laws are judged qualitatively.

Quantitative judgments are better left to economics. Like unemployment, which, according to the latest figures from the Virginia Employment Commission, has ticked up to 6.1 percent.

Virginians are still waiting for the General Assembly to help lower that number.