Why I support NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia

Guest post by Angela Guzman, Chair of NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia’s Board of Directors

In January, I assumed the reins as chair of NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia — the 501(c)(4) advocacy arm of Virginia’s now 10-year-old NARAL Pro-Choice America state affiliate. I came on board with my sleeves rolled up, but admittedly, I failed to comprehend just how intensely we were going to have to work in protecting our rights and access to women’s health here in Virginia this year.

The 2012 General Assembly was a firestorm, fueled by anti-choice legislative members intent on advancing a political and ideological agenda — one deeply rooted in misguided beliefs that are dangerous to women’s health, and essentially deem us incapable of reaching sound conclusions about our own bodies, even with the counsel of our trusted medical professionals.

I support NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia because it is incomprehensible to me that I live in a state where our founding fathers (and let’s be honest, our founding mothers, too) developed the United States’ fundamental principles of freedom—life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness—and yet, this ongoing intrusion of government over women’s bodies and health only continues to escalate in intensity, rather than come to a screeching halt.

Attorney General Wrong to Reject Changes to Regulations for Women’s Health Centers

by Chris Lewis, legal intern:

On Monday, Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli announced that his office would not certify the regulations for first-trimester abortion providers passed by the Board of Health in June.  In a memo sent to Health Commissioner Karen Remley, Mr. Cuccinelli claimed that the board overstepped its authority by inserting a “grandfather clause” that exempted existing facilities from the onerous regulations forced through by anti-choice activists.  However, there is nothing in the law that supports Mr. Cuccinelli’s interpretation, and this is yet another example of the Attorney General using his position to advance his anti-abortion crusade.

The Office of the Attorney General has two responsibilities with regard to the adoption of regulations in Virginia.  The first is to serve as that agency’s counsel and provide legal advice during the promulgation of new regulations.  The second is to certify that those regulations are within the agency’s authority.  In no way should the Attorney General’s personal feelings on matters of policy come into play.  The job of the Virginia General Assembly and the various state agencies is to enact policy.  The job of the Attorney General is to provide legal advice to those entities.  If Mr. Cuccinelli wants to have a say in rule-making, he should have never left the state Senate.

The Attorney General claims that the law requires that all clinics must meet the new regulations.  However, Senate Bill 924–which classified abortion clinics as hospitals subject to regulation–does not include this requirement.  It merely adds clinics to the list of facilities that are subject to regulation by the Board of Health.  The law leaves it to the board (comprised mainly of medical professionals) to use their expertise and knowledge to craft rules that will best serve the Commonwealth.  Using this discretion, the board amended the regulations to include only new and renovated facilities, a move that brought the regulations closer to the intent of the experts who wrote the building guidelines as well as keeping with precedent.

Mr. Cuccinelli’s move flies in the face of previous building regulation in Virginia. Typically, all existing facilities are “grandfathered” in and are not subject to new rules.  In fact, the Attorney General’s representative at the June meeting admitted that new regulations have never   been applied to already-constructed buildings.  With neither the law nor precedent supporting his move, Mr. Cuccinelli is clearly taking an activist position and acting solely in the interest of his personal politics.

With the refusal to certify, the regulations will return to the Board of Health to be addressed again – mostly likely in September.  Be sure to contact the board members to encourage them not to submit to political pressure and to once again put medical science and women’s health ahead of personal politics. You can find out more information and many ways to take action at the Virginia Coalition to Protect Women’s Health website.

Forced Ultrasounds In Effect In Virginia

Guest Post by Legal Intern Chris Lewis:

The controversial, unnecessary, and intrusive mandatory ultrasound law is now in effect in the Commonwealth.    Starting this week, any Virginian seeking to exercise her constitutional right to get an abortion must first get an ultrasound, regardless of the medical advice of her doctor.  The law, which was passed over the objections of thousands of Virginians, was signed by anti-choice Governor Bob McDonnell, and enthusiastically endorsed by his sidekick and likely 2013 GOP gubernatorial nominee Ken Cuccinelli.

The law requires that:

• A woman must undergo a compulsory ultrasound before having an abortion, whether or not her doctor says its necessary or she asks for it.
• Her doctor must offer her the opportunity to view the image and listen for fetal heart tones – but telling the doctor “no thanks” isn’t a good enough a response. She must sign a refusal form that will then be saved in her medical record for seven years.
• The ultrasound must be performed at least 24 hours prior to the abortion unless the woman lives 100 miles or more away from her provider. If she lives 99 miles or less away, that means at least two and more likely three appointments on separate days, requiring additional expenses such as taking time off work and paying for additional gas and child care.
• Can’t afford an ultrasound or your insurance won’t cover it? Anti-choice policymakers will provide you with a list of crisis pregnancy centers – aka fake anti-choice clinics – that will provide you with a free one… while they use misinformation try to pressure you to not have an abortion.

These “crisis pregnancy centers” are especially troublesome.  The Virginia Department of Health provides a list of “no-cost ultrasound services”, but each of the organizations listed is an anti-choice clinic with the primary purpose of discouraging abortion—not providing care for women.  To make matters worse, these clinics needed to only answer six questions to be listed in the government directory, and only two of those questions have anything to do with ensuring that the person performing the ultrasound is in any way competent enough to do so in a safe matter.  In addition, no part of the law requires that the anti-choice clinics give the woman a copy of the ultrasound should she decide to get an abortion from a legitimate clinic.  She may have to start the entire process again!

Governor McDonnell and Attorney General Cuccinelli have exhibited a shocking amount of hypocrisy on this issue.  They claim the onerous TRAP regulations are intended only to ensure the safety of women and the quality of medical care, but have said nothing about making sure the crisis pregnancy centers meet these standards.

After last week’s Supreme Court ruling that affirmed the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act (a law that will bring health care access to thousands of low-income Virginians), McDonnell called the decision a “blow to freedom”.  Yet he and the other anti-choice politicians in the Commonwealth take no issue with putting unnecessary government mandates in between a woman and her doctor.

The ultrasound mandate will impact every woman in Virginia, but the burden will fall especially hard on the at-risk and marginalized communities in the state, including young women, low-income women who are uninsured or under-insured, rural women whose closest provider is far away, and working women with children.  There is no doubt that these women will have to bear significant new costs in order to get an abortion, a right that has been repeatedly asserted by the United State Supreme Court.

Anti-choice politicians need to know that their opinion is not shared by a majority of Virginians.  Please sign our petition and demand that the General Assembly repeal this intrusive law.  And be sure to sign up with our Choice Action Network (CAN) to stay informed about further assaults on reproductive freedom in Virginia.

Most Threatening Requirements Stripped from “TRAP” Regulations by Board of Health

Some of the pro-choice activists in the audience at the Board of Health’s meeting. (photo credit: Planned Parenthood Advocates of Virginia)

Guest post from our legal intern, Chris Lewis:

Sanity and rationality may have, at least for a little while, returned to Virginia’s government. On Friday, the Board of Health voted to approve permanent regulations on women’s health centers, the targeted regulations on abortion providers (“TRAP”) rules that anti-choice forces in the state have been pushing to limit abortion access for Virginians.

While the passed regulations still include serious threats to the privacy and security of patients and providers, the board voted to insert a “grandfather clause” in the bureaucratic and unnecessary building regulations. Without this clause, the state’s abortion clinics would need to either shut down or undergo costly renovations.

Along with our coalition partner organizations in the Virginia Coalition to Protect Women’s Health with whom we’ve been working to oppose these TRAP regulations over the past year, many parties deserve thanks for helping to protect women’s rights. Nearly 200 abortion rights supporters showed up early Friday to protest the regulations, with dozens of them bringing hand-made signs. About 50 of the supporters voiced their opinion during the public comment period, pointing to the cost the proposed rules would have, as well as their chilling effect on individual liberty.

Board members Jim Edmondson and Anna Jeng passionately assaulted the blatant unfairness of the regulations that would require clinics—some of which have been open for four decades—to meet new building standards, despite the fact that all other existing medical facilities are exempted from new structural regulations.

Representatives of notoriously anti-choice Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli argued that the law calling for clinic regulation, passed by the General Assembly in 2011, was intended to cover both new and existing facilities, but as Edmondson, Jeng, and fellow board member Paul Clements pointed out, there is nothing in the law’s text that supports this extreme view. Clements added that Virginia did not need to “add regulations that are going to make it more difficult for everybody else that does a good job.”

Edmondson, Jeng, and Clements were joined by John DeTriquet, Steven Escobar, and Catherine Slusher in voting for the final amendment that inserted the grandfather clause and helped ensure that access to abortion will not be totally stripped from Virginia women. DeTriquet, Escobar, and Slusher– appointees of anti-choice Governor Bob McDonnell–deserve special praise for voting in the interest of medical science and not personal politics.

Fellow McDonnell appointees Bruce Edwards, Eric Deaton, Mary McCluskey, Gail Taylor, and Amy Vest, however, could not overcome their political biases and voted to make medical access much more difficult and expensive for Virginians.

Friday’s events do not mean that the board meeting was a total victory for pro-choice advocates, or that Cuccinelli-McDonnell attack on women’s rights is over. Amendments to the regulations that would have ensured the protection of patients and clinic owners failed, potentially exposing them to harassment and radical anti-choice violence. Cuccinelli’s representatives virtually assured that their office would reject the regulations as being in violation of their radical interpretation of the law. If the regulations are rejected, they would be returned to the Board of Health where they would face an uncertain future.

With the regulations potentially being heard again at the next board meeting and the terms of three members expiring at the end of the month, it is as important as ever to contact members and demand that they protect a woman’s right to choose and to put science ahead of politics.

You can take action by thanking the Board members who voted to amend the regulations and urging them to stand by this change should the regulations return to the Board.

• Learn more about our work with the Virginia Coalition to Protect Women’s Health to oppose TRAP regulations.
• Read the Virginia Coalition to Protect Women’s Health press release on Friday’s vote [PDF].

Stop McDonnell & Cuccinelli’s TRAP scheme

Cross-posted from NARAL Pro-Choice America’s BlogforChoice.com.

by Tarina Keene, Executive Director of NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia

Sanity seems to have left the commonwealth of Virginia.

Earlier this year, the country watched with shock and awe as Virginia passed a mandatory ultrasound bill that forces a woman to undergo an ultrasound procedure before receiving an abortion – even if she does not want an ultrasound and even if her doctor thinks it is unnecessary. Now, the Old Dominion – Thomas Jefferson’s commonwealth – is again poised to humiliate women and doctors by shutting off access to safe, legal abortion.

Since the McDonnell Administration and an activist attorney general came into power two and half years ago, the policy making process has been wrought with duplicitous backroom deals and contrived regulations in an effort to ban abortion… and even birth control. So far, they’ve gotten away with it.

This Friday, the Virginia Board of Health will again meet to consider proposed permanent regulations for women’s health centers – what we call “TRAP,” targeted regulations on abortion providers. But don’t be fooled. These proposed regulations have nothing to do with patient care or safety despite what McDonnell and Cuccinelli may purport. They want to force doctors’ offices that provide first trimester abortion – and have been doing so safely for nearly 40 years – to now convert themselves overnight into mini-hospitals, which you may agree is nearly impossible to do! The Board of Health literally is imposing new 2010 hospital construction guidelines on doctors’ offices that have been open and operating for four decades! What this means is that women’s health centers must spend hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars adding additional toilets, expanding the size of their doors and hallways, increasing treatment rooms to the size of your car garage, making sure there are as many parking spaces as there are beds (even though there are no overnight stays), and expensive, very specific ventilation systems. All this for one of the safest medical procedures performed in the United States today, which generally takes fewer than 10 minutes to complete.

Simply put – if regulations are passed as written with these forced building construction requirements, the majority of the state’s abortion providers may be forced to close putting women’s health and safety at risk.

What does this mean for women? Under the proposed permanent regulations, the 20 women’s health centers that provide safe, affordable early abortion care in Virginia will be forced by the government to comply with overly burdensome, medically unnecessary regulations to just keep their doors open – costs that could be so high that health centers are forced to close their doors entirely. This has a detrimental impact on women’s access to affordable healthcare, especially for young, low-income, uninsured or underinsured, rural and minority women who count on women’s health centers around the state for their primary care. If even one health center closes, that could mean higher costs for women who already struggle to access and pay for healthcare.

We need to bring sanity back to the commonwealth of Virginia and end attacks on women’s health and privacy. Without public action or legislative oversight, Gov. McDonnell and AG Cuccinell will have a free pass to implement the most aggressive laws in the country to impede access to women’s health care and abortion. This overreach of power is unconscionable! But it’s not too late.

The regulations are before the Virginia Board of Health this Friday June 15. If approved through the next stages of the regulatory process, these regulations will become law in early 2013. Please ask each of the 15 BOH members to use their medical expertise – not politics- to make the logical decision to stop this insane attempt to impose politically motivated regulations onto abortion providers. The women of Virginia are counting on them.

On the 39th Anniversary of Roe v. Wade, we’re still fighting: Guest post by Congressman Jim Moran

Today is NARAL Pro-Choice America’s annual “Blog for Choice Day” in honor of the 39th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s decision in Roe v. Wade recognizing a woman’s  constitutional right to have control over her body and reproductive life by being able to choose safe, legal abortion. NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia’s blog is honored today to share a special guest blog post by Congressman Jim Moran, who represents Virginia’s 8th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives and has long been a champion for women’s rights and health.

Guest post by Representative Jim Moran

Thirty-nine years ago today, the Supreme Court issued its 7-2 decision in the Roe v. Wade case stating that abortion is a fundamental right under the United States Constitution. Sadly, decades later we are still fighting everyday to preserve this fundamental women’s right.

No woman expects or plans for an unintended pregnancy. Those women for whom the unexpected happens are put in a terrible position; the consequences are steep, no matter what she decides. And this personal decision should not be made or interfered with by the federal, state, or local government.

Last year, 92 anti-abortion, anti-choice measures were passed into law across the United States, as well as seven anti-choice measures passed in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives. One such measure was Virginia’s new targeted regulation of abortion providers (or “TRAP”) law singling out abortion clinics to be treated as ambulatory surgery centers instead of doctor’s offices, as they have been classified. Clinics must now meet hospital-type standards on the size of rooms and widths of hallways, among other changes, possibly forcing closure of many clinics across the commonwealth. I was proud to join with women and men across the Commonwealth to stand against Governor McDonnell’s endorsement of these extreme regulations.

Under the landmark Affordable Care Act, women across the country with private insurance are eligible to receive birth control and other preventative services without paying anything out of pocket. Just this week, the Obama Administration announced women will be able to obtain these benefits beginning this summer. While we continue to fight a larger battle against individuals fighting against women’s health, this week’s news is welcome progress in the fight to expand access to basic health care for women.

Unfortunately, the efforts of anti-choice advocates both in state legislatures and within the halls of Congress will surely extend to the 2012 election  year. This effort to eliminate access to women’s reproductive rights runs contrary to the intent of the Supreme Court’s constitutional ruling. I will continue to strongly advocate for abortion rights for women. This is an issue of great personal conscience that should be free of government interference. The Supreme Court has proclaimed its legality; the rest should be left to a woman, her family and her physician.

We thank Rep. Moran for sharing his thoughts with us today for Blog for Choice Day! Join in by following the posts on NARAL Pro-Choice America’s www.BlogforChoice.com and by sharing your own reflections about about reproductive freedom today. If you’re on Twitter, don’t forget to tag your tweets or links to your blog posts with #Blog4Choice or #Tweet4Choice.

Gov. McDonnell Shows True Colors

By Staff

Governor Bob McDonnell has long tried to hide his out-of-touch conservative streak. However, shortly before the New Year, Virginia’s Governor showed his true colors and approved the nation’s most restrictive regulations on first-trimester abortion providers here in Virginia.

On December 29^th, Gov. McDonnell approved a new set of regulations that single out first-trimester abortion providers in the effort to shut them down. The regulations effectively require women’s health centers that provide first-trimester abortion services to be singled out from other doctor’s offices and be treated like hospitals.

Sounds innocuous on the surface, right? Well, that’s what McDonnell and his allies in the Virginia General Assembly want you to think. In fact, a first-trimester abortion is actually safer than colonoscopies, oral surgery and laser eye surgery.  First trimester abortion has less than half of one percent complication rate! Yet, unsurprisingly, doctors’ offices that provide those services have not been targeted by Gov. McDonnell.

The reason is obvious. This was a political move, clearly made to appeal to the far right. Only a small percentage of Virginians want to restrict a woman’s right to choose – and that small, fringe percentage has McDonnell’s ear.  Unfortunately, all Virginia women may find themselves with no reproductive healthcare choices in this new political climate.

During the 2009 race for governor between Senator Creigh Deeds and then Attorney General Bob McDonnell, Sen. Deeds tried to tell us that McDonnell was too much of a radical conservative to effectively serve as Virginia’s chief executive officer. Unfortunately, that message is now being heard loud and clear. It’s just two years too late.

Attorney General Cuccinelli: practicing medicine without a license?

By Staff

This weekend, we got more evidence that Virginia’s new regulations singling out abortion providers are about one thing only: a political agenda to eliminate access to safe, legal abortion in Virginia.

On Saturday, Larry O’Dell of the Associated Press released a story titled, “Some medical advisors question abortion rules.” The story focused on the medical professionals and educators who advised the Virginia Department of Health in developing targeted regulations on abortion providers following the passage of S.B. 924 earlier this year.

The point of the story was simple and clear: the regulations now on the governor’s desk awaiting his approval are drastically different than those recommended by a panel of medical professionals and originally drafted by the Department of  Health, in ways that make them excessively difficult for abortion providers to meet and would force many of them to close.

We’re wondering what happened. And we’re not the only ones. One of the medical professionals on the advisory panel expressed his confusion:

Dr. James E. Ferguson II, chairman of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Virginia…said the document adopted by the board in September went well beyond what the advisory panel recommended. “I don’t know where they got changed, but ultimately they were different, more stringent and more restrictive – and several of them, at least, unnecessary,” Ferguson said.

Those of us who were at the Board of Health meeting in September saw Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli’s office hijack deliberations in order to make the regulations as far-reaching as possible.

The new article highlights some specific ways Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli’s office worked to turn medical suggestions for targeted regulations that would have at least been related to medical science into an overreaching, ideologically-motivated attack on abortion access. Let’s take a look at a couple medical recommendations Cuccinelli’s office rejected:

Medical recommendation 1: Allow existing facilities to be “grandfathered” in to building requirements.

This would mean that, according to the AP article, existing offices “would not be held to standards that were not in place when they opened.” No other existing medical facilities in Virginia are required to be retrofitted to meet new construction codes.

Ken Cuccinelli’s view: “New strict building standards – which cover things like hallway widths and covered entrances – are mandated by state law.”

Medical advice: Rejected.

Medical recommendation 2: Limit regulations to offices providing surgical abortion and exempt offices that only provide medical abortion.

This would mean that offices offering medication abortion would not be subject to the same strict building requirements as an office providing surgery — a commonsense exception that would have excluded providers that do not even do surgical procedures from having to adhere to hospital-style regulations.

Ken Cuccinelli’s view: “State law makes no distinction between medical and surgical abortions so the board can’t either.”

Medical advice: Rejected

The bottom line: Attorney General Cuccinelli’s office continues overreaching to push these regulations to their most extreme possible form, disregarding sound medical science and the expertise of health professionals in his pursuit of a backdoor ban on access to abortion in Virginia.

If you haven’t yet, contact Governor McDonnell or write a  letter to the editor of your local paper to express your concern about anti-choice ideology trumping sound medical science and women’s healthcare needs in the crafting of these regulations.

Pro-Choice Candidate of the Day: Senator Dave Marsden, Senate District 37

We’re less than two weeks away from one of the biggest elections for reproductive choice in Virginia in years. On Tuesday, November 8, Virginians will go to the polls to vote on all 140 General Assembly seats. All this week on the blog, we are spotlighting pro-choice candidates of the day in key races across the state, so you know who will stand up for women’s rights and health in Richmond and who we’re working to help elect this fall!

Senator Dave Marsden

We conclude our week of pro-choice candidate spotlights in Senate District 37 in Fairfax County, which winds from Annandale in the east through Burke and Centreville  and out to the southwest corner of the county.

In this race, Senator Dave Marsden is the pro-choice candidate.

Throughout his time in the House of Delegates and now in the state Senate, Senator Marsden has been 100-percent pro-choice and an outspoken and tireless champion for women’s health. He provides one of the vital votes necessary to stop the anti-choice agenda of Governor Bob McDonnell and his allies.

Senator Marsden is running against anti-choice candidate Jason Flanary. Flanary is another extreme candidate this year who will support the McDonnell-Cuccinelli anti-choice agenda and advance government intrusion into the private medical decisions between a woman, her doctor, her family and her faith. In fact, Flanary wants to intrude in the private medical decisions of young women and opposes access to medically-necessary abortion later in a pregnancy. Jason Flanary would do much to undermine vital healthcare for Virginia women.

As it is so important to remember, Virginia’s state Senate is currently what we call “mixed-choice.” When votes on abortion and other reproductive rights issues come to the floor of the Senate, we do not have a reliable pro-choice majority. We saw the real consequences of this scenario earlier this year as anti-choice legislators snuck through S.B. 924, a bill singling out women’s health centers for new, politically-motivated regulations. Senator Marsden voted against this law because he recognized these regulations for what they are – government intrusion into the private medical decisions of Virginia women that would actually put women’s health and rights in greater danger.

Every vote in the Senate is critical, and we know Senator Dave Marsden will continue to be a strong pro-choice leader in Richmond. Learn how you can get involved to get out the pro-choice vote (including for Senator Marsden!) by visiting our Elections page.  Make sure to get out and vote on Tuesday, November 8, and share this post with friends in Fairfax County to help us get out the pro-choice vote!

By NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia PAC staff. Not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee.

Pro-Choice Candidate of the Day: Senator Ralph Northam, Senate District 6

We’re less than two weeks away from one of the biggest elections for reproductive choice in Virginia in years. On Tuesday, November 8, Virginians will go to the polls to vote on all 140 General Assembly seats. All this week on the blog, we are spotlighting pro-choice candidates of the day in key races across the state, so you know who will stand up for women’s rights and health in Richmond and who we’re working to help elect this fall!

Senator Ralph Northam

Today we continue our pro-choice spotlight by heading to the Tidewater and Eastern Shore region of Virginia and Senate District 6, which encompasses all of Accomack, Northampton and Mathews counties, and portions of the cities of Virginia Beach and Norfolk.

In this race, Senator Ralph Northam is the pro-choice candidate.

Senator Northam, an M.D. specializing in pediatric neurology, has been an outspoken and tireless champion for women’s health while in the state Senate. Like other senators in this week’s spotlights, Senator Northam is a vital member of the Senate Committee on Education and Health, where bills dealing with abortion and reproductive choice and health are heard. Strong pro-choice leadership on this committee is one of the last obstacles in the General Assembly to stop the anti-choice agenda of Governor Bob McDonnell and his allies. That’s part of the reason anti-choice politicians are working so hard to unseat Senator Northam.

As a practicing physician, Sen. Northam brings important experience and expertise to the committee, where he has often spoken to debunk anti-choice claims and provide perspective on the medical realities of reproductive choice and health issues. He has also been a leader on ensuring that Virginia’s young people receive the effective sex education they need to prevent pregnancy and protect their health. In the 2011 session, for instance, he patroned S.B. 967, a bill to ensure that Family Life Education programs in Virginia schools are medically-accurate and evidence-based. Sen. Northam has also spoken out on the issue of so-called “crisis pregnancy centers” and the importance of making sure that these anti-choice organizations are not able to deceive Virginia women or provide them with medically-inaccurate information.

Senator Northam is being challenged by anti-choice candidate Ben Loyola, Jr. Not only will Mr. Loyola fully support the radical McDonnell-Cuccinelli agenda in Richmond (the governor not only endorsed, but promised to help campaign with Loyola), but he has shown his anti-choice positions in his own right. In fact, he sponsored a fundraiser for a deceptive anti-choice “crisis pregnancy center” that misinforms Tidewater women about abortion, birth control and reproductive health. To have an anti-choice candidate like Ben Loyola in the state Senate, particularly in place of a tireless public health advocate like Senator Northam, would be a detriment to women’s health in Virginia.

As we’ve noted before, Virginia’s state Senate is currently what we call “mixed-choice.” When votes on abortion and other reproductive rights issues come to the floor of the Senate, we do not have a reliable pro-choice majority. We saw the real consequences of this scenario earlier this year as anti-choice legislators snuck through S.B. 924, a bill singling out women’s health centers for new, politically-motivated regulations. As a champion of women’s health, Senator Northam voted against this law because he recognized these regulations for what they are – government intrusion into the private medical decisions of Virginia women that would actually put women’s health and rights in greater danger.

Senator Ralph Northam is strong pro-choice leader in Richmond who we can count on to keep working hard for women’s rights, privacy and health. Learn how you can get involved to get out the pro-choice vote by visiting our Elections page.  Make sure to get out and vote on Tuesday, November 8 and remind all your pro-choice friends to do the same! Share this post and remind people of the importance of their vote for protecting the future of choice in Virginia!

By NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia PAC staff. Not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee.