Terry McAuliffe Hosted Press Call on Supreme Court Decision on Texas Abortion Ban and Glenn Youngkin’s Dangerous Agenda to Ban Abortion in Virginia

From the McAuliffe for Governor campaign:

MCLEAN, VA – Today, Terry McAuliffe hosted a press call to discuss the Supreme Court decision to leave in place the Texas law banning abortions and highlighted his opponent’s far-right views to bring extreme bans to Virginia.

Texas’ abortion ban is a warning about what could happen if Trumpian, far-right Republicans like Glenn Youngkin are elected in Virginia. Terry discussed how this dangerous Texas law is exactly what Glenn Youngkin has in mind when he says he wants to go ‘on offense’ to ban abortion in the Commonwealth. Terry also highlighted how Youngkin’s right-wing social agenda will destroy Virginia’s economy and if passed in Virginia, would put women’s lives in danger.

Terry has long been a champion of women’s reproductive rights and has been endorsed by Planned Parenthood Advocates of Virginia and NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia. As Virginia’s 72nd Governor, Terry successfully fought back against attempts to close all women’s health clinics in Virginia and kept the clinics open, and he vetoed multiple bills that would have defunded Planned Parenthood. Just as he was before, Terry will always be a “brick wall” to protect access to reproductive health care in the Commonwealth.

TERRY MCAULIFFE’S REMARKS AS DELIVERED

Thank you Renzo and thank you all for getting on the call with me today, as Renzo mentioned obviously overnight we’ve seen what happened with the Trump Supreme Court. We knew for years people would say that abortion is ending and now we’ve seen that happen in Texas. So we’ve seen now in Texas these draconian laws go into effect. This should be a warning to all states in America that they could go the way of Texas, unless we elect individuals who will be brick walls to protect women’s individual rights.

Here in Virginia, we’re at ground zero for this. I am running against an individual who is probably the most anti-choice women’s candidate in the history of Virginia and that’s saying something because I ran against Ken Cuccinelli, 8 years ago, but as you know he has made it very clear publicly, he got caught on tape saying he will go on the offense to ban abortions and defund Planned Parenthood. He also said in that same breath, moments after, that he couldn’t be honest with the voters because if the voters knew his views, the Independents would not vote for him.

So the stakes are clear, Glenn Youngkin has said he will go on the offense, he will not get squishy and he will ban abortions. So if Glenn Youngkin is elected and he gets the House here, there is a good chance we will see Virginia go the way of Texas and women will lose their rights here in the Commonwealth of Virginia. And I’ll say this is so dangerous for women, for women’s health if this were ever to pass, it would put women’s lives in danger. And as I’ve campaigned throughout the Commonwealth, I’ve met with so many women, so many doctors who have said this would be so dangerous to women here, and care will become less accessible to people who actually need it.

So this is a real call to individuals to understand that this is a far right extremist Trump candidate who wants to ban abortions in Virginia, he is clear about that and secondly in addition to women’s health issues, it’s what that would mean to our economy. As you all know I was a brick wall. This was a big issue for me when I ran against Ken Cuccinelli back in 2013. Virginia had pass some of the most anti-women legislation in America. You can remember the one particular bill that made us a laughing stalk on national television. In addition they had done the TRAP laws, and shut the 16 women’s clinics down here in Virginia. I stopped all of that, I reappointed the board of health, we changed the TRAP rules and I’m very proud that I kept all 16 women’s clinics open. In addition I vetoed bill after bill after bill, that would roll back women’s individual rights. As a brick wall NARAL, Planned Parenthood recognized me every year for my efforts, but we’re back at this again.

The other big piece of this is, is this will be so damaging to the Virginia economy if it passes. I’ve already made calls yesterday to all of our economic development people in the state, saying we should call Dell, we should call HP, we should call American Airlines, and tell them to come to Virginia. We are a state that respects women’s individual rights and I had a lot of history with this as you know, I had to stop all the anti-women, anti-gay, legislation that Virginia legislators, Republicans, had passed. I got Co-Star, one of the biggest real estate companies in America who was going to North Carolina, North Carolina outbid us 3:1, but after they passed their H.B. 2 bill, I called the CEO Andy Florence convinced him that they can’t go to North Carolina, they need to come to an open, welcoming state and CoStar, now headquartered in Richmond, Virginia, and in the next couple of years they will be up to 2,000 employees so everyones got to understand the stakes that are involved in this upcoming election.

Glenn Youngkin will be a leader to the anti-women’s efforts. He’s proud of it, he talks about it all the time and as I say he’s trying to hide his views and we’re not going to let him but with that I’ll be glad to take a couple of questions.