Blocking most reproductive health bills isn’t a route to ‘common ground,’ governor

Gov. Glenn Youngkin recently took action on a flurry of Virginia legislators’ measures related to reproductive health, mostly blocking bills designed to preserve the public’s access to abortions and birth control as these same issues roil national debates and as other states pass laws that restrict womens’ bodily autonomy and roll back decades of abortion protections. 

First, a surprising signoff: Youngkin, a Republican, signed a bill from Del. Vivian Watts, D-Fairfax, that prevents electronic menstrual data — often collected in period-tracking digital apps — from being subject to search warrants, subpoenas or court orders. Watts said in a phone interview Wednesday that her bill is a “preventative measure” that, considering the social climate of the nation, is warranted.

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“The Arizona Supreme Court just allowed a law that goes back to the 1800s to override a law passed within the last decade,” Watts said, referencing the state’s recent decision to uphold a 160-year-old statute that bans virtually all abortions and reject a 2022 law that allowed abortions up to the 15th week of pregnancy. When the newly-reenacted antebellum era law was first created, Arizona wasn’t a state, women couldn’t vote, and slavery was an ongoing American tradition.

Arizona’s near-total abortion ban is the latest example of how access to abortions has been increasingly limited since the Supreme Court of the United States overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, removing Constitutional protections for the procedure that is often necessary to save womens’ lives or health. 

My surprise at Youngkin greenlighting Watts’ bill isn’t based on the common sense merit of the measure. Protecting individuals’ private health information should be the standard of any state that respects its citizens. And it’s just downright creepy to imagine a Virginia judge or law enforcement officer scrutinizing the date and duration of peoples’ periods.

That Youngkin advanced that bill while vetoing several other reproductive health measures is what seemed like an unexpected mixed message to me, Virginia abortion advocates and Watts.

“I am amazed that there’s the recognition of the importance of privacy as a basic human right,” Watts said of Youngkin signing her bill, “that’s not being recognized in the other abortion-related legislation, where the right of a private decision is not being respected.”

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Which pieces of related legislation did the governor reject or alter?

He shot down a bill carried by Sen. Barbara Favola, D-Arlington, to prevent the extradition of people who come to Virginia for an abortion from other states where the procedure is illegal, should that person face related criminal charges in their home state. The bill’s extradition protection would have extended to doctors and medical workers who performed or assisted with out-of-state patients’ Virginia abortions, too.

“By vetoing this bill, the governor has refused to provide a layer of protection that Virginia healthcare professionals believe is necessary to ensure that they can provide abortion care without the fear of prosecution,” Favola posted on social media platform X. Doctors and women seeking abortions in the state “deserve the peace of mind this bill would’ve provided,” she added.

Bills from Del. Candi Mundon King, D-Dumfries, and Sen. Jennifer Carroll Foy, D-Prince William,  that would have protected medical professionals who provide abortion care from disciplinary actions by the Board of Medicine also met Youngkin’s ax.

He said no to a bill by Del. Sam Rasoul, D-Roanoke, mandating companies with 50 or more employees provide workers up to 10 days of unpaid bereavement leave after a family members’ death, but also, importantly, after a miscarriage, an unsuccessful “reproductive technology” procedure like in vitro fertilization, a stillbirth or following a medical diagnosis that “negatively impacts pregnancy or fertility.”

A bill by Del. Marcia Price, D-Newport News to establish a right to access and use birth control regardless of the American Constitution’s requirements was, like Watts’ bill, an effort to protect reproductive health care from future federal restrictions that may be on the horizon. Youngkin amended, and weakened, the bill by predicating Virginians’ right to contraceptives on landmark Constitutional contraceptive protections, ones that could be overturned just like Roe. v. Wade. By doing so, he took the teeth right out of it.

Youngkin didn’t fully reject a measure from Sen. Ghazala F. Hashmi, D-Richmond, and King to mandate insurance companies cover birth control; he amended it by adding a loophole allowing insurers to be exempt based on their religious or ethical beliefs. 

Religious beliefs about the God-given sanctity of life are the bedrock of America’s anti-abortion movement. Some use their religious beliefs to discriminate against LGBTQ+ people. Slaveowners used their religious beliefs to condone owning human beings, even reading Bible passages about servants obeying their masters to enslaved Black people. 

The problem with the governor tacking on a religious beliefs exemption to Hashmi’s bill is that, historically and presently, religious beliefs have been a convenient way for some people to excuse their bad behavior, spread prejudices and enforce their agendas at the expense of others’ lives, liberty and wellbeing.

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Virginia is the last Southern state to preserve access to abortion with no new restrictions after Roe’s overturning. Our commonwealth is now a sanctuary of last resort for people who can’t get abortion care that they desperately need where they live. As the reproductive health culture wars rage on, it’s imperative that Virginia’s laws reflect what citizens need and want: laws that support their health and ensure the best quality of life possible.

Immediately after torching most abortion bills and diluting one to cement birth control as a human right, Youngkin started touting his revised budget as a way for state lawmakers and their constituents to reach “common ground.” But by rejecting the legislature’s reproductive health measures, our governor also rejects the rights and will of many Virginians and contributes to the deepening political and cultural divides fracturing our country.