Planned Parenthood Advocates of Virginia Legislative Priorities 2022
As of January 28, 2022

Our priority: protecting access to essential, time-sensitive sexual and reproductive health care. 

 

Legislation

  • Oppose bills that put politicians in the middle of private medical decisions that should be left to each patient and their medical provider:
    • HB1274 (Freitas) and SB710 (Chase): The goal of this 20-week abortion ban, as with all abortion bans, is to stop people from accessing essential health care and to take away people’s power over their own bodies, their lives, and their futures.
    • HB983 (Williams): Reinstates all of the restrictions repealed by the Reproductive Health Protection Act (24-hour waiting period, mandatory ultrasound, TRAP, physician-only, biased counseling). It also includes a “reason ban” which is part of a larger campaign to stigmatize abortion and to pass as many laws as possible to restrict access to abortion care.
    • HB212 (Greenhalgh): Reinstates biased, state-mandated counseling that interferes with the provider-patient relationship.
    • HB304 (Freitas), HB776 (Williams), HB1349 (LaRock): So called “born alive bills” are vehicles for anti-abortion politicians to push misinformation, stoke fear, and bully patients and providers — with ultimate goal of banning abortion. 
  • Oppose bills that undermine the teaching of comprehensive, medically accurate Family Life Education: HB156 (Byron), HB781 (Williams), HB785 (LaRock), HB786 (LaRock), HB787 (LaRock), HB789 (LaRock), HB1007 (P. Scott), HB1009 (Durant), HB1068 (Cordoza), HB1347 (LaRock), SB570 (Kiggans)
  • Oppose SB20 (Hackworth), HB988 (Wyatt) and SB766 (Kiggans) which target transgender students and seek to politicize the fair treatment of transgender students.
  • Oppose HB937 (LaRock) which seeks to restrict state family planning funding from nonprofit family planning health providers like Planned Parenthood.

 

Budget

  • PROTECT Contraceptive Access Initiative (in introduced budget)
    • Provides $4 million/year for low-income Virginians to access a range of birth control options including long-acting reversible contraceptives (LARCs) and hormonal birth control pills. 
  • OPPOSE Budget Item 294#2h (Delegate Walker)
    • This budget item prohibits funding from the Contraceptive Access Initiative from being provided to facilities that provide abortion. The item also limits the types of contraception that is included to just Long Acting Reversible Contraception (LARCs). 
  • OPPOSE Budget Item 294#5h (Delegate LaRock)
    • Lays out priority funding for Family Planning Services and would block health providers like Planned Parenthood who provide abortion care.
  • OPPOSE Budget Item 4-5.04#1s (Senator Suetterlein) 
    • This budget item impacts Medicaid-eligible people who seek an abortion after a physician certifies in writing that the fetus suffers from a severe and totally incapacitating fetal diagnosis. Virginia denies state funding to Medicaid-eligible pregnant people who seek an abortion except in the cases of rape, incest, when their life is at risk, and in cases of incapacitating fetal diagnoses. This amendment would strike fetal diagnoses from this list, interfering with low-income Virginians’ fundamental right to make decisions about their health and family. 
  • OPPOSE Budget Item 4-5.04#1h (Delegate P. Scott) 
    • This budget item impacts Medicaid-eligible people who seek an abortion after a physician certifies in writing that the fetus suffers from a severe and totally incapacitating fetal diagnosis. Virginia denies state funding to Medicaid-eligible pregnant people who seek an abortion except in the cases of rape, incest, when their life is at risk, and in cases of incapacitating fetal diagnoses. This amendment would strike fetal diagnoses from this list, interfering with low-income Virginians’ fundamental right to make decisions about their health and family.