RICHMOND, Va. (CN) — On Thursday, Democrats and lobbyists delivered over 37,000 signatures to Governor Glenn Youngkin's executive mansion, imploring the Republican to sign legislation protecting Virginians' access to contraceptives.
"They represent a safeguarding of our rights, an assertion of our values and a commitment to the well-being of our community," Rae Pickett of the Virginia League for Planned Parenthood said in a press conference.
A bill that passed through the Democratic-controlled General Assembly gives Virginians the right to obtain contraceptives and engage in contraception. The bill also includes language giving healthcare providers the right to provide contraceptives and contraception-related information.
"Banning IVF and contraception are the next targets for extremist politicians and judges," Delegate Destiny LeVere Bolling said. "We know that any type of barrier to access will disproportionately hurt Black women like myself."
The unusual delivery of petition signatures comes as Youngkin has until April 8 to sign, veto or offer amendments to all bills passed. The legislation enjoyed minimal bipartisan support, with five Republicans in the House of Delegates and none in the state Senate voting to approve the measure.
Delegate Ghazala Hashmi, the bill's senate patron, told reporters that she has heard from Republican colleagues that political pressure swayed their votes.
"Even my Republican male colleagues who voted against the legislation have privately shared that their spouses, their daughters, their nieces, their cousins all support the right to contraception," Hashmi said. "Many of them, unfortunately, are voting against their own conscience on this issue."
The push from reproductive rights advocates comes on the heels of the Supreme Court's 2022 ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, overturning the right to abortion afforded through Roe v. Wade.
"None of us would have thought, I think, that access to contraceptives would actually be the next battleground in our fight for reproductive healthcare," Hashmi said. "The threat is very real."
Virginia already enjoys unfettered access to contraceptives, but Democrats warn that following the overturning of Roe, anything is on the table. U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, a Virginia resident, wrote in a concurring opinion on the Dobbs decision that the high court should reconsider its ruling in Griswold v. Connecticut.
In the 1965 decision, the Supreme Court found Connecticut law prohibiting the use of any method to prevent conception unconstitutional. The seven-judge majority found it violated the right to marital privacy, effectively establishing the basis for the right to privacy concerning intimate practices.
"States across the South have pursued draconian rollbacks of our reproductive rights," Delegate Rae Cousins said. "The goals of these extremist politicians and judges could not be more clear. They want to control our bodies and our ability to seek the care that we deserve."
A proposed bill in Oklahoma, known as the Oklahoma Right To Human Life Act, originally intended to place new restrictions on intrauterine devices used for contraceptive purposes. The Act also revokes some contraceptive medications like Plan B and the morning-after pill's over-the-counter status, making it only available through a physician's prescription.
Hashmi also pointed to the Alabama Supreme Court ruling finding frozen embryos are children under state law. The verdict brought a rush of warnings about the potential impact on fertility treatments and the freezing of embryos, which had previously been considered property by the courts.
Penny Blue, Virginia program director of Red, Wine and Blue, was one of ten children on a farm in rural Franklin County.
"I am certain, no doubt, that my mother loved each and every one of her children and loved the family she was able to build with my dad," Blue said. "But, I also know that she cherished the decisions and control that her seven daughters and grandchildren had with regard to access to birth control."
Virginia would join 13 other states and Washington DC, in establishing legal or constitutional protections for the right to contraception. Birth control, particularly hormonal birth control, is used to treat a variety of conditions, including premenstrual syndrome and polycystic ovarian syndrome and can reduce the risk of developing ovarian or endometrial cancer for people who are genetically high risk by 50%.
Youngkin offered amendments to another contraception bill that requires health insurance companies to include coverage for contraceptive drugs and devices. The proposed amendment ensures that non-governmental plan sponsors can deny contraception coverage on the grounds of sincerely held religious or moral beliefs.
The bill protects the use of oral contraceptives, long-acting reversible contraceptives such as intrauterine devices and hormonal contraceptive implants, emergency contraceptives, internal and external condoms, injectables, vaginal barrier methods, transdermal patches and vaginal rings.
"Governor Youngkin, the ball is in your court, and all eyes are on you," Pickett said. "This is your moment to lead, to protect and to inspire."
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