A new political action committee is hoping to flow funds to abortion rights candidates in Virginia’s 2023 General Assembly elections. Roe Your Vote Virginia launched Thursday with the target of disbursing $1 million to competitive House of Delegates and state Senate races.
In June, when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade — a 49-year-old ruling that federally protected access to abortion — a number of states began enacting bans or restrictions on the procedure. Some states already had pre-Roe bans in place that immediately took effect once Roe was overturned.
Current Virginia law allows abortions under any circumstances until the end of the second trimester, or within the first 26 weeks of pregnancy. Third-term abortions are legal if three physicians attest it’s necessary to save the pregnant person’s life, or if continuing the pregnancy would “irremediably impair” their physical or mental health.
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Meanwhile, several states surrounding Virginia have enacted various restrictions or bans.
Gov. Glenn Youngkin has expressed support for a 15-week ban on most abortions, with exceptions for rape, incest or when a woman’s life is in jeopardy. He has directed a handful of Republican legislators to work on bills ahead of the next session.
Sen. Amanda Chase, R-Chesterfield, recently announced plans to introduce the “Life Begins at Conception Act” in January. It’s unlikely to clear the Democrat-controlled Senate during the session, but contests later that year — when all 100 House seats and all 40 Senate seats are up for election — have abortion-rights advocates nervous.
“We’re not somewhere really obvious like New York or Texas — Virginia could be a safe haven for abortion access or it could be outright banned,” said Roe Your Vote Executive Director Tara Gibson.
She also noted how competitive campaigns tend to draw in the most money in the final months before general elections. To help bolster candidates sooner, she said that Roe Your Vote will give money to candidates sooner in their campaigns.
“We want to give early,” Gibson said. “A lot of significant funding comes in the last two to three months of the election cycle, but early investments can win the race — particularly at the state level.”
Del. Eileen Filler-Corn, D-Fairfax, said she welcomes the new PAC’s efforts to support candidates next year.
“It’s all hands on deck,” she said.
Though abortion is not a totally partisan issue, Democrats generally support access to the procedure while Republicans tend to oppose it. Republicans have a 52-48 edge in the House of Delegates and Democrats have a 21-19 edge in the Senate.
Following the election of Sen. Jen Kiggans, R-Virginia Beach, to Congress a special election will occur this year to fill the vacancy. If a Democrat were to win that seat, it would be harder for Republicans to pass any floor votes on abortion restrictions next session as well.
While Republicans are likely to challenge Democrats’ narrow Senate majority in 2023, Filler-Corn is working with her colleagues to regain Democratic seats in the House.
More recently, she and Del. Dolores McQuinn, D-Richmond, launched an interfaith coalition to generate consensus on laws to support abortion rights.
The group has been hosting gatherings around the state to connect with religious groups and mobilize voters around abortion access.
“We just have to get the message out there as we continue to focus on winning back the House and growing our Senate majority,” Filler-Corn said.
As for Roe Your Vote Virginia, Gibson said its first year will focus on General Assembly races next year but is keeping an eye on future elections in Virginia. She noted how abortion surfaced as a top issue in competitive congressional elections this week and the victories of some candidates who backed abortion rights.
“If we learned anything from [Nov. 8] elections and this midterm, is that anti-abortion candidates and legislators are just wildly out of touch with voters in Virginia and across the country,” Gibson said.