Governor Spanberger Statement Marking Four Years Since Dobbs Ruling

RICHMOND, VA — Governor Abigail Spanberger today released the following statement marking four years since the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization — and reiterated her commitment to protecting reproductive rights across Virginia.

“When the Supreme Court of the United States overturned Roe v. Wade, the justices made the choice to jeopardize the rights and endanger the safety of American women.

“Millions of women lost access to lifesaving healthcare overnight. In the following four years, politicians in statehouses across the country worked quickly to roll back access to abortion, fertility treatments, contraception, and other reproductive healthcare. Women facing medical emergencies are forced to travel hundreds of miles for care, navigate complex restrictions, and risk criminalization to save their fertility or even their own lives.

“But not in Virginia. Our Commonwealth has not — and will not — follow down this path. Virginia is the only state in the South where a woman has the same freedom to make her own healthcare decisions as she did before the Dobbs decision. As long as I am Governor, that will not change. And in November, Virginians will vote to enshrine reproductive freedom in our Constitution — so no future Governor and no future legislature can unilaterally take these rights away.”

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Last week, Governor Spanberger signed landmark legislation — including the Right to Contraception Act — to protect reproductive freedoms, reaffirm the right to access contraception in Virginia, and make sure more women can access critical reproductive healthcare. The Governor also joined the Reproductive Freedom Alliance (RFA), a nonpartisan coalition of governors committed to protecting and expanding reproductive freedom across the United States.