Democrats voted to send the Virginia Right to Contraception Act back to MAGA Gov. Glenn Youngkin without his proposed amendments, which would protect the right of doctors, medical staff and private health institutions to lodge a “religious or conscientious objection” to providing “contraception or contraceptive procedures, supplies, or information.”
“Let’s be absolutely clear. Gov. Youngkin’s amendment was not a compromise. It’s a calculated move to make it appear as though he supports contraception while stripping the bill of both its definition and its enforcement mechanism. It is not worth the paper it is written on,” said State Sen. Ghazala Hashmi, D-Richmond, who shepherded one of the two bills protecting the right to contraception through the General Assembly this year.
No doubt, Youngkin will veto the bill once it gets back to his desk, as he did last year with the 2024 iteration.
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His back is against the wall politically on this, given his desire for a political future after his single term as governor is up in a few months, and the MAGA base’s red-meat stance on anything that remotely feels like it has to do with abortion.
Youngkin’s dithering on this legislation gives Democrats the chance to hammer home the point that MAGA Republicans stand firmly opposed to the basic reproductive rights of millions of women.
The Right to Contraception Act would simply codify the right for patients to use and doctors to prescribe contraception – including birth-control pills, IUDs, condoms and emergency contraceptives.
The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists was among the many groups who testified in support of the bill.
“Virginians want to know that their right to contraception is secure, period,” said Del. Cia Price, D-Newport News, who introduced the House version of the bill. “Any high school government student who turned in a policy paper like Gov. Youngkin’s substitute for this bill would have gotten an F. There is no right unless we both define and enforce it. The General Assembly has done its job by rejecting the governor’s meaningless excuse for a substitute. The only thing standing in the way of this protection becoming law is Gov. Youngkin. He should sign the bill immediately.”
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Chris Graham
