Youngkin vetoes Right to Contraception Act: Reproductive choice remains under attack

MAGA Gov. Glenn Youngkin vetoed, for the second straight year, the Virginia Right to Contraception Act, legislation that would codify the right for patients to use and doctors to prescribe contraception – including birth-control pills, IUDs, condoms and emergency contraceptives.

Youngkin, back in March, had proposed an amendment to the bill that 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.”

Democrats in the House of Delegates and State Senate, as expected, voted down the proposed amendment, and Youngkin’s subsequent veto, handed down on Friday, the three-year anniversary of the leak of the Supreme Court decision that would ultimately overturn Roe v. Wade, was also expected, given the politics of the anti-reproductive rights wing of the Republican Party.

The Youngkin veto, and the vote from the Republican Party nominee for governor, Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, against the bill back in January, will serve as stark reminders to pro-choice voters as to the stakes in the fall elections.

“This legislation would have safeguarded the right to contraception under Virginia law, ensuring it could not be stripped away by extremist politicians,” said Chris Fleming, a spokesperson for the advocacy group Americans for Contraception.

“Virginians have made clear they want contraception protected,” said Fleming, noting that the Youngkin veto “comes just days after Tennessee’s Republican governor signed bipartisan legislation protecting contraception rights – proving that even some conservative states understand what’s at stake.”

“This was a commonsense bill to safeguard a basic freedom, one that shouldn’t be up for debate in the first place,” said State Sen. Lamont Bagby, D-Richmond, the chair of the Democratic Party of Virginia. “By vetoing it for a second time, Youngkin didn’t just reject reproductive freedom, he ignored the overwhelming majority of Virginians who believe the right to contraception is essential. His veto sends a clear and dangerous message: Republicans will always leave your freedoms, and your health care, on the chopping block.