From Planned Parenthood Advocates of Virginia; I couldn’t agree more.
Planned Parenthood Advocates of Virginia Calls on Legislators to Prioritize Reproductive Health Care Access in State Budget Negotiations
For Immediate Release: March 10, 2026
Richmond, VA – As the Virginia General Assembly moves to finalize a state budget in the remaining days of the 2026 session, Planned Parenthood Advocates of Virginia urges legislators to prioritize needed investments in sexual and reproductive health care access.
Statement from Jamie Lockhart, Executive Director of Planned Parenthood Advocates of Virginia:
“We commend the historic Virginia General Assembly session that has affirmed, time and again, that Virginians should be able to make personal health care decisions free from political interference. Now, we urge legislators to finish the session strong and fulfill their commitment to reproductive freedom by negotiating a budget that pairs strong policy with the necessary investments to ensure essential reproductive care is affordable for all.
Unfortunately, the draft budgets put high-quality sexual and reproductive health care at risk for thousands of Virginians. Virginia appropriators have the opportunity to ensure patients can continue receiving critical, affordable health care by providing general fund dollars, rather than federal pass-through funds, to help fill gaps left by federal funding cuts.
Planned Parenthood Advocates of Virginia is asking the legislature to move the Virginia Contraceptive Access Initiative (VCAI) to the general fund and include a modest increase to ensure continuity of care despite federal actions.
As currently written, the budget drafts accept former Governor Youngkin’s proposal to fund the VCAI with federal pass-through funding that carries restrictions which would functionally end the program. This would have a disproportionate impact on the Virginia League for Planned Parenthood (VLPP), which receives more than one-third of its family planning budget through the VCAI. Without this funding, entire communities served by VLPP could lose access not only to contraception but a whole host of preventive and sexual and reproductive health care.
Prioritizing this relatively modest investment – and utilizing general funds to ensure services can be delivered – will have an outsized impact on communities across Virginia who rely on VLPP for comprehensive reproductive health care and more.”
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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.
