Virginia Senate blocks women’s right to choose

Monday afternoon, after hearing tearful testimony from multiple citizen witnesses in a packed Senate Commerce and Labor Committee meeting, the committee’s Republican majority defeated Senator Donald McEachin’s (D-Henrico) SB 183, which would have removed the prohibition on covering abortions in insurance plans and riders sold on Virginia’s health exchange.

Said Senator McEachin, “Two weeks ago, we celebrated the anniversary of Roe v. Wade. After forty-three years, we are still fighting attempts to restrict Virginia women’s access to safe and legal abortion. The decision to seek an abortion rests between a woman, her doctor, and her family. We as politicians have no right to interfere. Denying women coverage for a medical procedure is an injustice that must be reversed.”