Virginia Republicans are Complicit in GOP’s Crusade to End Access to Legal Abortion in America

Access to safe, legal abortion in America took a devastating blow last night with POLITICO reporting on a leaked draft Supreme Court majority opinion that would strike down Roe v. Wade and open the door for 26 states to immediately move to ban the right to abortion. Virginia Republicans are complicit in this all-out assault on women’s freedoms.

Virginians need to know the Republican congressional candidates’ dangerous records on women’s reproductive freedom and health care:

• VA-02: Jen Kiggans claimed ending access to safe, legal abortion was her motivation to run for office, and pledged to prioritize “the right to life.” She largely based her first campaign on promoting misinformation and false claims about “infanticide” – then shamefully deleted that part of her website after she won her primary. While in the state Senate, Kiggans voted against legislation to expand access to abortion.
• VA-02: Jarome Bell called for abolishing Planned Parenthood, and just last week appeared at a March For Life where he claimed opposing reproductive rights was “one of [his] biggest issues” and criticized his opponent for voting to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment.
• VA-07: Last night, Yesli Vega called the potential overturning of Roe “an amazing victory.”
• VA-07: Bryce Reeves has made opposing reproductive rights a core issue of his campaign and supported legislation that would force women to undergo invasive testing in order to make a “rational” decision when seeking an abortion.
• VA-07: Gina Ciarcia said she could not “express the joy [her] heart feels” after hearing the news about the Supreme Court draft decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.
• VA-10: Jeanine Lawson is a founding member of a “crisis pregnancy center,” ideologically-driven organizations that pose as reproductive health care clinics but don’t provide qualified medical care, and use misinformation to convince women not to seek an abortion. She criticized “Planned Parenthood loyalists” and pledged to “remain relentlessly dedicated” to restricting reproductive rights.

Make no mistake – access to abortion is on the line this November and hinges on control of Congress. Just hours before the draft Supreme Court opinion was leaked, the Washington Post reported that congressional Republicans are working on a “push for a strict nationwide ban on the procedure if Republicans retake power in Washington.”

DCCC Spokesperson Monica Robinson:
“The stakes in this election could not be higher: Electing Virginia Republicans will stack Congress with politicians who support their party’s decades-long dream of ripping away women’s freedom to make their own decisions about their bodies.”