In response to Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin vetoing legislation to protect access to contraception, DNC spokesperson Jackie Bush released the following statement: 

“Last fall, MAGA extremist Glenn Youngkin witnessed Virginia voters reject his attempts to attack women’s reproductive rights at the ballot box. Clearly, Governor Youngkin didn’t learn his lesson. Today’s veto of legislation to protect Virginians’ right to contraception offers further evidence that Youngkin is still operating from Donald Trump’s losing playbook as he doubles down on Trump’s deeply unpopular, anti-freedom agenda. Trump, Glenn Youngkin, and MAGA extremists across the country seem as hellbent on ripping away women’s reproductive rights as they are on losing elections.” 

Virginia voters made it clear last fall that Glenn Youngkin and MAGA Republicans’ anti-freedom agenda is deeply unpopular. 

Associated Press: “Virginia Democrats sweep legislative elections after campaigning on abortion rights”

“Virginia Democrats who campaigned on protecting abortion rights swept Tuesday’s legislative elections, retaking full control of the General Assembly after two years of divided power.”

“The outcome is a sharp loss for Gov. Glenn Youngkin and his fellow Republicans, who exerted a great deal of energy, money and political capital on their effort to secure a GOP trifecta.”

19th News: “Virginia Republicans embraced a 15-week abortion ban — and then lost”

“Tuesday’s election results in Virginia are a rebuke to what anti-abortion advocates and Republican politicians hoped was a limit that a broad swath of voters could get behind.”

Since Donald Trump overturned Roe and unleashed anti-reproductive rights legislation in state after state, contraception is now on the MAGA chopping block. 

Stateline: “Some States Already Are Targeting Birth Control”

“[Missouri Republicans] were going after specific forms of birth control as well, notably, emergency contraceptives, often sold under the brand name Plan B, and intrauterine devices, known as IUDs. GOP lawmakers tried to stop Missouri’s Medicaid agency from paying for those forms of contraception.

“Missouri state Sen. Paul Wieland, one of the Republicans who led that effort, explained his position this way: ‘The bottom line is there is only one time something definitively happens and that’s the moment of conception. Once that happens, anything that happens should not be state funded.’”

Daily Beast: “Wake Up! Republicans Really Are Trying to Ban Contraception”

“House Bill 3216, or the ‘Oklahoma Right To Human Life Act,’ seeks to create a database to track women who have abortions, limit the use of emergency contraception–like the Plan B pill–and also restrict the use of intrauterine devices, which prevent the implantation of a fertilized human embryo.”

New York Times: “Republican Opposition to Birth Control Bill Could Alienate Voters, Poll Finds”

“A new national poll conducted by Americans for Contraception and obtained by The New York Times found that most voters across the political spectrum believe their access to birth control is actively at risk, and that 80 percent of voters said that protecting access to contraception was ‘deeply important’ to them. Even among Republican voters, 72 percent said they had a favorable view of birth control.”

“When voters were told that 195 House Republicans had voted against the Right to Contraception Act, 64 percent of them said they would be less likely to support Republican candidates for Congress, according to the poll. And overall, the issue of protecting access to contraception bolstered voters’ preference for Democrats by nine points, giving them a 12-point edge over Republicans, up from three.”

Even after voters in Virginia and across the country expressed outrage at MAGA Republicans’ attacks on reproductive freedom, extremist Glenn Youngkin continues to attack reproductive health care.

News Leader: “In a late-evening action, Youngkin vetoes abortion-related and family medical leave bills”

“Bills HB519 and SB716, if signed would have prohibited the Virginia Board of Medicine from taking disciplinary action against a doctor who provides abortion care; bills HB1539 and SB15, if signed, would have prohibited extradition from the commonwealth for health professionals who provide abortion care deemed illegal in another state.”

VPM: “Gov. Glenn Youngkin vetoed four bills Friday night that would have created shield laws for reproductive-health providers.”

WVTF: “Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin now has the record for the most number of vetoes of any governor in recent memory, and he rolled out new abortion vetoes over the weekend. Here’s Senator Barbara Favola, a Democrat from Arlington who introduced one of the vetoed bills that would’ve protected women and providers from being extradited to Tennessee or Texas, where abortion is much more restricted.”

“‘You can imagine a woman who had to cobble together money to leave her state and then take time off from work, come to Virginia alone, scarred,’ Favola says. ‘We should be able to provide that woman the peace of mind that she won’t be extradited.’” 

MAGA minion Youngkin is following Trump’s toxic, anti-reproductive rights playbook. Trump laid the groundwork for attacks in the states on reproductive care.

Trump: “I was proudly the person responsible for the ending of… Roe v. Wade.”

Vanity Fair: “Trump Says He Wouldn’t Stop States From Tracking Individual Pregnancies So They Can Prosecute People Caught Getting Abortions”