Virginia’s governor lets slip the truth, causing discomfort for advocates.

A legislative effort to loosen restrictions on late-term abortion died last week in the Virginia General Assembly. The problem was that Gov. Ralph Northam was a little too honest about what the bill would mean. When an interviewer asked him what would happen to a baby born alive during a third-trimester abortion, the governor—who also works as a pediatric neurologist—said calmly: “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.” What the governor is describing is already standard practice. That became clear at the 2013 trial of Kermit Gosnell, a Philadelphia abortion doctor, who was convicted of three counts of first-degree murder for stabbing infants to death after delivering them alive.

Proponents of legal abortion have responded to Mr. Northam’s comments with denial. “The idea that the proposed bill in VA somehow allows a woman to have an abortion up to or as she gives birth is flat-out untrue—it’s simply not how medical care works,” Planned Parenthood Action tweeted Thursday. In fact, eight states—Alaska, Colorado, Kansas, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Oregon and Vermont, along with New York under a law enacted last month—have no time limit on elective abortion. Another 20 or so—the exact number is unclear because some laws are vaguely written—allow abortion up to 24 weeks. The Supreme Court held in Roe v. Wade (1973) and reaffirmed in Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992) that states must permit even third-trimester abortions for “the health of the mother.” The bill in Virginia—along with New York’s new Reproductive Health Act and a similar measure under consideration in Rhode Island—aims to sweep away what meager restrictions on abortion still exist. Such efforts are motivated by fear that the Supreme Court may now have a five-justice majority to curtail some of the excesses of the highly permissive abortion regime under Roe and Casey. Mr. Northam’s comments have caused great discomfort because they underscore how extreme the laws already are.

More From The Wall Street Journal (subscription required):