Republicans have been characterizing  a reproductive health bill introduced in the Virginia house as legalizing infanticide, and it’s stirring up significant backlash in conservative media. Here’s what’s going on.

So what does this piece of legislation actually do?

The REPEAL Act was introduced by freshman Delegate Kathy Tran, a Democrat who represents part of Fairfax County. It had 20 co-patrons in the House and two in the Senate, as well as the backing of Governor Ralph Northam and Attorney General Mark Herring, both Democrats. “The bill is intended to remove unnecessary medical and unduly burdensome barriers that Virginian women face when they’re accessing this healthcare service in consultation with their doctor,” Tran said.

As written, the bill removed a series of legal requirements for patients and providers before obtaining an abortion, including the need for a patient to get an ultrasound (a 2012 bill made Virginia the seventh state to require women undergo an ultrasound procedure first); allowing abortions during the second trimester to occur outside of state-licensed hospitals; and lowering the number of doctors from three to one needed to agree that a third trimester abortion is necessary for the health of the mother.

The bill resembles a law recently passed in New York, which similarly enraged anti-abortion advocates.

Why did it drum up so much controversy?

Conservatives seized on an exchange between Tran and Todd Gilbert, the House Majority Leader, which occurred on Tuesday, after the bill had already been tabled by a subcommittee (as it has in years past). Gilbert asked a series of questions about whether the legislation she introduced would permit a woman to abort a pregnancy up to the point where “she’s dilating.”

Tran responds that it would be “a decision that the doctor, the physician and the woman would make.” Republicans characterized the answer as tantamount to admitting the legislation allows doctors to “provide abortions up to just seconds before that precious child takes their first breath,” as the VA House GOP wrote on Twitter.

Tran said in a video released on Thursday that she was “surprised” by the line of questioning from Gilbert, and her answer reflects current law in the commonwealth: a woman can already obtain a third trimester abortion if three doctors determine that her health would otherwise be “substantially and irremediably impaired.” The bill would change the number of doctors who have to sign off on the procedure from three to one.

So how did Governor Northam and President Trump get involved?

Northam, a doctor, was asked about the legislation by WTOP on Wednesday. He said:

When we talk about third-trimester abortions, these are done with the consent of obviously the mother, with the consent of the physicians, more than one physician, by the way,” Northam said. “And it’s done in cases where there may be severe deformities, there may be a fetus that’s non-viable. So in this particular example, if a mother is in labor, I can tell you exactly what would happen. The infant would be delivered. The infant would be kept comfortable. The infant would be resuscitated if that’s what the mother and the family desired, and then a discussion would ensue between the physicians and the mother. So I think this was really blown out of proportion.

A video of the comment posted by a conservative journalist on Twitter has already gotten more than 3.7 million views, and garnered responses from prominent Republicans, including President Donald Trump, who called Northam’s remarks “terrible” to the Daily Caller. “Do you remember when I said Hillary Clinton was willing to rip the baby out of the womb? That’s what it is, that’s what they’re doing,” he said. “This is going to lift up the whole pro-life movement like maybe it’s never been lifted up before.”

Northam says his comments were taken out of context, and a statement from his spokesperson says the criticism “is in bad faith.”

“No woman seeks a third trimester abortion except in the case of tragic or difficult circumstances, such as a nonviable pregnancy or in the event of severe fetal abnormalities,” said spokesperson Ofirah Yheskel. “The governor’s comments were limited to the actions physicians would take in the event that a woman in those circumstances went into labor.”

Where does the bill stand now?

Before any of the controversy began to spread, the bill had already been tabled. While Tran told WRTV she does not expect the bill to be taken up again this session, she says in a self-released video that she’s heard from “many women in my district and across Virginia who support my efforts to make sure that politicians don’t get between a woman and her healthcare decisions. I appreciate their support and continue to stand with the women in Virginia.”

But as long as Republicans maintain control of the House, don’t expect the bill to move forward. “We will always stand against late-term abortions,” the VA House GOP tweeted.

A 2018 poll found that 64 percent of Virginians believed abortion should be legal in all or most cases.

How does abortion access in Virginia compare to D.C. and Maryland?

Virginia has significantly more restrictions on its books than D.C. and Maryland. For instance, both the District and the Old Line State do not have a waiting period, whereas the commonwealth requires 24 hours. Additionally, Virginia is the only of the three jurisdictions that requires that second trimester abortions be performed at a hospital, prohibits third trimester abortions except in cases of life or health endangerment for the woman (Maryland’s limit is at the point of viability), and bans “partial-birth abortions.”

Indeed, women often travel to D.C. and Maryland from across the country to obtain abortions. However, D.C. is hamstrung by Congress in its ability to use its own locally raised funds to provide the procedure to low-income residents.