RICHMOND (LifeSiteNews) — Virginia Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin has vetoed two bills that would have further spread abortion pills in the state, while approving one that could open the door to an expansion of embryo-destructive in vitro fertilization (IVF).
HB1716 would have established a general “right to contraception,” including for minors without parental involvement, and HB2371 would have forced health insurance companies to cover abortifacient contraceptives without exemptions for religious or conscience reasons.
Youngkin rejected both measures on May 2, declaring his support for “contraception access” but arguing that both bills would go much further.
“The General Assembly refused to adopt my reasonable amendments which included the addition of a conscience clause exemption that would protect religious freedom,” he said of HB1716. “This bill contains significant flaws by creating overly broad rights of action, potentially subjecting parents, political subdivisions, and medical professionals to litigation even when acting within their legal rights and professional bounds and further, would subvert a medical professional’s judgment if a patient’s well-being could be jeopardized. The legislation also fails to include adequate conscience clause protections for health care providers and weakens the fundamental right of parents to guide the upbringing and care of their children, which the General Assembly refused to adopt.”
He leveled a similar charge against HB2371: “Without such protections, many organizations would be forced to violate their religious or ethical beliefs about contraception should this bill have become law. These entities would thus be forced to choose between following the law or following their deeply and sincerely held beliefs—a choice the Commonwealth must not require them to make.”
At the same time, Virginia-based Family Foundation president Victoria Cobb lamented that Youngkin did sign HB1609, which establishes a commission to examine whether to define “procedures such as the unregulated practice of embryo banking, which involves IVF, as ‘essential health benefits.’ While this bill doesn’t mandate coverage for these procedures, it does potentially bring us closer to fully endorsing this industry without any guardrails or consideration of alternative procedures to address infertility.”
The actions follow Youngkin vetoing legislation in March that would have imposed a bubble zone around abortion facilities so stringent that, in the governor’s view, pro-lifers “could be jailed simply for carrying a sign.”
The fact that such legislation reaches the governor’s desk is a reminder that pro-lifers have an uphill battle in Virginia, and that the full pro-abortion floodgates may very well open back up when Youngkin leaves office next January.
Last month, a study by the pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute found that abortions in Virginia increased by 5,500 from 2023 to 2024, driven mostly by women traveling from pro-life states.
Twelve states currently ban all or most abortions. But the abortion lobby is working feverishly to cancel out those deterrents via deregulated interstate distribution of abortion pills, legal protection and financial support of interstate abortion travel, constructing new abortion facilities near borders shared by pro-life and pro-abortion states, making liberal states sanctuaries for those who want to evade or violate the laws of more pro-life neighbors, and embedding abortion “rights” in state constitutions.