From DPVA:
Elected, Reproductive Rights Leaders Call Out Sears for Unearthed Comments Attacking Reproductive Rights
Sears: “We need to make our choices before we’re pregnant, not, you know, after. You already made a choice.”
VIRGINIA – Today, Delegate Candi Mundon King, Communications Director for Planned Parenthood Advocates of Virginia Rae Pickett, Jenny Higginbotham and Pat Eastwood, Virginians with personal stories called out Winsome Earle-Sears following unearthed audio of Sears saying “we need to make our choices before we’re pregnant, not, you know, after, you already made a choice,” calling abortion “genocide,” and supporting a near total abortion ban.
Watch the press call by clicking the image above.
“I am here today because thirty-three years ago I was able to make my own choices about my health with my own doctor. A woman’s reproductive rights should be her own. We need leaders who understand that and will protect a woman’s right to make her own choices. Winsome Earle-Sears has been clear she won’t do that,” said Jenny Higginbotham, a Virginian with a personal reproductive care story.
“Having gone through a high risk pregnancy, Sears’ newly unearthed comments telling women that once they are pregnant they’ve already made a choice are especially concerning. And paired with the rest of her long record attacking reproductive rights, it’s clear Sears won’t protect reproductive freedom and instead will unleash dangerous restrictions and a near total abortion ban,” said Pat Eastwood, a Virginian with a personal reproductive care story.
“Sears told Virginia women they need to make choices before they are pregnant and after they’ve “already made a choice” and is trying to insert herself into decisions best made by women and their doctors – not politicians and definitely not Winsome Earle-Sears,” said Delegate Candi Mundon King. “Sears would unleash extreme restrictions on reproductive care and insert politicians into conversations between women and their doctors.”
“Winsome Earle-Sears, who is running to be the governor of Virginia, has an extreme and out of touch record of attacking reproductive rights. And these newly reported comments reaffirm just how extreme Sears is,” said Communications Director of Planned Parenthood Advocates of Virginia Rae Pickett. “As we see more and more attacks on reproductive rights here in Virginia and across the country, it’s especially important that we have a leader who will stand up for our rights.”
Read more about Sears’ dangerous record on reproductive rights:
- In multiple interviews, Sears has made clear her support for restrictions on abortion.
- In a 2022 interview she said, “we need to make our choices before we’re pregnant, not, you know, after, you already made a choice.”
- During her campaign for lieutenant governor she called abortion “genocide.“
- Sears left a handwritten note that she is “morally opposed to this bill […]” on the constitutional amendment that would protect reproductive freedom in Virginia, including contraception, abortion, and IVF.
- Sears admitted she would not sign the Right to Contraception Act into law saying “[…] this legislation is more about pushing a political agenda […].”
- Sears “couldn’t resist” voting against this legislation to guarantee Virginia women’s access to contraception.
- She refused to answer questions from the media about her tie-breaking vote denying Virginians access to contraception and birth control.
- Sears supports an extreme six week abortion ban similar to the law that took effect in Texas that bans abortion before most women know they are pregnant.
- Sears has said that she would support an abortion ban with no exceptions for rape or incest.
- January 2021: The Winchester Star reported that Sears said she wanted to make abortion illegal in all cases, unless the life of the mother was at risk.
- Sears vowed to “do everything in [her] power” to end abortion in Virginia.
- Sears’ 2021 lieutenant governor campaign website: “I will do everything in my power to stop this act from taking place in Virginia.”
- Sears attempted to scrub this abortion section from her website around September 2021.
- Sears’ 2021 lieutenant governor campaign website: “I will do everything in my power to stop this act from taking place in Virginia.”
- Sears has declared she is “standing shoulder to shoulder” with the far-right fight against IVF.
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