Richmond, Virginia—As states across the country ramp up their efforts to criminalize patients for exercising reproductive choice after the Dobbs decision, Virginia has become a sanctuary for people escaping draconian laws passed in their own states. By vetoing several bills that protected patients and their care teams, Governor Glenn Youngkin has failed Virginians by refusing to protect and advance reproductive rights.
“These vetoes infringe on the personal freedom of all Virginians,” said Nakita Mayfield, Director of the Virginia Reproductive Equity Alliance. “Politicians should not intervene in medical care. Gov. Youngkin is playing politics with people’s lives and we should be outraged.”
In response to the pressing challenges posed by the post-Dobbs landscape, SB15/HB 1539 would have protected out-of-state abortion care patients from being extradited to their home state for prosecution. Similarly, SB 716/HB 519 aimed to prevent the Board of Medicine from punishing medical practitioners for providing legal abortion care. By vetoing these bills, Governor Youngkin has turned his back on our collective commitment to safe, legal abortion, bodily autonomy, and medical privacy.
Members of the Virginia Reproductive Equity Alliance:
Hampton Roads Reproductive Justice League
Latina Institute for Reproductive Justice – Virginia
National Council of Jewish Women, Virginia
New River Abortion Access Fund
Richmond Reproductive Freedom Project
Virginia NOW (National Organization for Women)
National Women’s Political Caucus-Virginia
Virginia Civic Engagement Table
Background:
SB15 (Favola) and HB 1539 (Simon): Extradition Protection
- Per federal law, a person who is requested for extradition by a charging state must be a fugitive. States are not federally required to extradite a person who violated the laws of their home state in a state where their conduct was legal, though they may opt to honor the extradition request. Many states have adopted shield laws more broadly to set limits on who may or may not be extradited in these cases: Virginia has not.
- People of color and low-income people are disproportionately prosecuted for abortion and miscarriage-related crimes and are charged more aggressively than their white or higher income counterparts.
SB 716 (Carrol Foy) and HB 519 (Mundon King): Protect Virginia’s Health Workers, Board of Medicine Bill
- SB 716 and HB 519 prohibit the Board of Medicine from taking action against providers for an abortion that is lawful under the Code of Virginia “based on the alleged provision or receipt of human health services not prohibited under the laws of this Commonwealth, regardless of where such human health services were provided or received.”
- Fourteen other states have enacted similar bills to protect providers who perform legal abortion care for out-of-state clients who live where the procedures are banned or restricted.