ROANOKE, Va. – With hundreds of bills awaiting action, Gov. Abigail Spanberger is weighing legislation tied to reproductive rights, including a measure that involves reproductive rights.
Spanberger has until April 13 to decide whether to sign a bill that would codify a person’s right to use contraception and a health care provider’s right to prescribe it.
Supporters of the bill said the change is necessary as reproductive health policy continues to shift nationwide.
“In the wake of the fall of Roe v. Wade, reproductive health care rights are increasingly vulnerable,” said Executive Director of Planned Parenthood Advocates of Virginia Jamie Lockhart. “And ensuring access to contraception is a fundamental part of protecting bodily autonomy and personal decision making.”
Opponents said the bill does not account for providers who object to certain forms of contraception.
“There’s nothing in the bill as it’s passed through the General Assembly this year that would allow for ethical concerns from doctors or providers who have objections to providing certain types of contraception,” said the president of the Virginia Society for Human Life Olivia Gans Turner.
10 News spoke with Virginia Tech Professor Cayce Myers about why lawmakers might consider making this bill a law. Myers said some lawmakers may be trying to strengthen protections in state law in anticipation of future legal challenges.
“One of the things that this does is it’s codifying something into law in kind of anticipation of maybe these rights become eroded later by the federal courts,” said Myers. “Or that it becomes sort of the current law becomes interpreted in a very narrow way.”
The debate comes as Virginians prepare to vote in November on a proposed constitutional amendment that would enshrine reproductive health care — including abortion access — in the state constitution.
Myers said that even though abortion is currently legal in Virginia, the constitutional question is aimed at creating longer-lasting protections.
“It is a reaction to kind of this larger kind of conversation that we’ve had, and we’ve seen in the last few years around abortion access, particularly as courts have interpreted that, and the overturning of Roe versus Wade,” said Myers.
The Virginia Society for Human Life criticized the amendment effort.
“The amendment is more of a political plaything, a toy, if you will, of those who support abortion and promote abortion,” said Turner.
Lockhart argued that without constitutional protection, access can change quickly with shifts in political power.
“In Virginia, until the right to make personal health care decisions is in our Constitution, we are always one or two elections away from that changing,” said Lockhart.
In addition to the reproductive-rights question, voters in November will also decide on two other constitutional amendments: one addressing same-sex marriage and another on whether former felons automatically regain voting rights and civil rights.