As Virginia Voters Head to the Polls, U.S. Supreme Court Hears Case on Texas Abortion Ban

From Planned Parenthood of Virginia

As Virginia Voters Head to the Polls, U.S. Supreme Court Hears Case on Texas Abortion Ban

While patients and providers in Texas have their day in the Supreme Court, abortion rights are on the line in Virginia’s election.

Richmond, Va — Today, as Virginians prepare for Election Day polls to open, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in two challenges to Texas’s cruel six-week abortion ban. For two months, Texans have been forced to make costly trips out-of-state to access abortion or to carry their pregnancies to term. The Supreme Court’s decision two months ago to allow this law, the most extreme abortion ban in the country, and its unprecedented “sue thy neighbor” provision to take effect has left many Virginians on high alert about the possibility of their state following in Texas’s footsteps. New research from Planned Parenthood Federation of America and In Our Own Voice: National Black Women’s Reproductive Justice Agenda found that if the court were to overturn Roe v Wade, 26 states could move to ban abortion, jeopardizing access for half the country.

Jamie Lockhart, Planned Parenthood Advocates of Virginia Executive Director:

“It is devastating that the Supreme Court has allowed Texas’s 6-week abortion ban, S.B. 8, to remain in effect for the last two months, denying the people of Texas their constitutional right to abortion. The Supreme Court must step in so that S.B. 8 can be blocked and Texans’ constitutional rights are restored. But this is bigger than just Texas. Access to abortion is at risk across the country, and 2021 has been the worst year for state legislative attacks on abortion since 1973.

Here in Virginia, we’ve made tremendous progress for reproductive rights over the last two years. It is absolutely critical that Virginia voters elect Terry McAuliffe for Governor, Hala Ayala for Lieutenant Governor and re-elect Mark Herring for Attorney General, along with Planned Parenthood Advocates of Virginia’s endorsed House of Delegates candidates, to protect access to safe, legal abortion in the Commonwealth. We cannot go back. It’s imperative we vote as if our rights depend on it – because they do.”

###

Planned Parenthood Advocates of Virginia (PPAV) is a statewide advocacy organization whose mission is to preserve and broaden access to reproductive health care through legislation, public education, electoral activity and litigation in the Commonwealth of Virginia. PPAV works to ensure that individuals and families have the freedom, information, and ability to make their own informed reproductive choices.