Dr. Siobhan Dunnavant is an OB-GYN. She’s also a state senator. That seems awesome, right? It would be great to have a doctor with women’s interests in mind as a State Senator.
Dunnavant Doesn’t Care About Women
Turns out, Senator Dunnavant hasn’t exactly prioritized women’s health in the State Senate. She put a conservative political agenda ahead of her patients and voted against the interests of Virginia women almost every time.
During the General Assembly session this year, she was one of only 6 Senators who voted against a commonsense bill to allow women to get a full year’s worth of birth control at one time. Studies show when women have access to a full year’s supply of birth control, unintended pregnancy decreases by 30% and abortion decreases by 46%, but Senator Dunnavant, an OB-GYN, voted against making it easier for women to access the birth control they need.
It gets worse. Senator Dunnavant, a doctor trusted by her patients for her medical expertise and non-judgemental advice, stood up on the Senate floor to spread misinformation and shame women, saying IUDs could cause abortion.
NO. That is completely false! IUDs are a popular and effective long-term birth control option that work for a lot of women. IUDs have low or no hormone options, so if hormonal birth control doesn’t work for some reason, IUDs are a perfect solution. They absolutely do not cause abortion.
Dunnavant’s Bizarro World
In the real world, because IUDs are just a normal form of birth control, if a woman wants to get one, she just calls up her doctor and schedules an appointment. No problem. Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, IUDs are even paid for through insurance, so women can get a long lasting birth control with very little out of pocket expense.
If IUDs actually caused abortion, they would be regulated like abortions. In Dunnavant’s bizarro world, women wouldn’t be able to go to their regular doctor. Instead, they’d have to travel to one of only 9 Virginia localities that have a women’s health clinic where a woman can get abortions. She would have to schedule not one, but two doctor’s appointments at least 24 hours apart. That means she would have to take time off work, find childcare for her kids, and take on the additional expense of staying overnight in a hotel.
When she finally makes it to the doctor to get an IUD, a woman would be forced to read biased and inaccurate government pamphlets about abortion and undergo a mandatory ultrasound in a misguided attempt to get her to change her mind. Only then can she come back the next day and finally have her IUD inserted.
Check out this video we made explaining what a day in the life in Senator Dunnavant’s bizarro world is really like. Then share it with your friends and celebrate that life in Virginia isn’t like that. Thank goodness!
Keep Fighting
If people like Senator Dunnavant got their way, women wouldn’t be treated as equal human beings. But we’re here to fight for our rights and ensure that women are able to make decisions about how and when to become a parent. We’re not there yet, but we won’t back down until women have full bodily autonomy and are treated as equals to men.
Join us in the fight to protect women’s rights in Virginia and across the country. We can only win when we all work together, so join us today!