Three years after the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, a crowd of about 300 people gathered Tuesday in Charlottesville to hear Democratic gubernatorial candidate Abigail Spanberger discuss the future of reproductive health care in Virginia.
Spanberger was joined on her “Span Virginia Bus Tour” by her running mates, state Sen. Ghazala Hashmi (D–Chesterfield) and former Del. Jay Jones, to say that a potential Democratic trifecta in state government would work to codify reproductive rights in Virginia’s Constitution.
In 2024, Gov. Glenn Youngkin vetoed legislation sponsored by Hashmi that would have protected access to several forms of contraception in the state. At the rally, Spanberger said if that bill came across her desk as governor, she would have signed it.
“It's also important that we have a governor who will say unequivocally, ‘I may be someone in elected office, but I do not have a right to dictate the conversations that you can have with your doctor,’” said Spanberger.
Alexis McGill Johnson, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood and its political advocacy group, said Virginia has been “on the front lines of tyranny” as the last state in the South without a post-Roe abortion ban.
“Do you know what it means to be able to choose hope?” McGill Johnson asked. “Do you know what it means to be able to say, ‘I'm going to get in a car and I'm going to drive all the way up [Interstate] 95 until I can find an available health clinic willing to help me?’”
Data reflects an increase in people traveling to the commonwealth from other Southern states for abortion care in the years since Roe was overturned.
For example, for Floridians, Virginia is the closest state without a mandatory waiting period or an abortion ban that goes into effect early in the gestational period. The Guttmacher Institute, a research organization that supports access to abortion, found that 1,620 people traveled from Florida to Virginia for abortions in 2024, up from 130 in 2023.
On Tuesday, Hashmi shared the story of her own pregnancy losses for what she said was the second time in public. (The first time, on Jan. 21, was during the General Assembly session in the Virginia Senate chamber.) She said that her hemorrhaging was so severe that she could have bled to death or suffered septic shock without access to swift medical care.
“As terrible and devastating as those two experiences were — as hard as it was for me, my husband to go through those experiences — I knew that I could talk to my doctor and that she could make the decision that was best for me, and my family, and provide me the life-saving health care,” said Hashmi. “I knew my doctor didn't have to pick up the phone and call a hospital attorney and ask for permission to save my life.”
Spanberger said it was the first time she’d heard Hashmi’s story.
“I think it was extraordinary that here she is, the candidate for lieutenant governor in Virginia, and that she shared something so deeply personal, and that it is the perspective that she carries with her as a legislator currently,” said Spanberger.
