Thursday, Sept. 3, Virginians for Reproductive Freedom held a press briefing with The Flat Hat, outlining its Right to Reproductive Freedom Amendment and upcoming campus events. With the amendment on the ballot this November, the organization is spreading awareness for reproductive rights across the state.
Director of Communications and Marketing for Planned Parenthood Advocates of Virginia Kate Schulman, Executive Director of Planned Parenthood Advocates of Virginia Jamie Lockhart, Campaign Manager of Planned Parenthood Advocates of Virginia Han Jones and Campaign Communications Director Olivia Rentner attended.
Jones explained the group’s position within Virginia’s political landscape.
“We are a coalition of Virginia families, healthcare organizations, and advocacy organizations that are coming together to work to ensure reproductive freedom for all Virginians,” they said. “We have over 25 groups in our coalition now, including groups like Planned Parenthood Advocates of Virginia, the ACLU of Virginia, Repro Rising Virginia, as well as a number of constituency groups and youth groups, such as [the] Feminist Majority [Foundation], [the National] Latina Institute [for Reproductive Justice], and a number of different groups like that.”
Jones said part of the organization’s goal is to protect access to reproductive care.
“What our amendment actually does is ensure that Virginians are able to make reproductive healthcare decisions for themselves,” Jones said. “So this protects a broad spectrum of care, including birth control, fertility treatment, miscarriage management, prenatal care, childbirth care, postpartum care and abortion care.”
The advocates also seek to protect healthcare providers.
“It also ensures that doctors and nurses don’t have to worry about being criminalized for providing medically appropriate care to their patients and does allow for restrictions on abortion in the third trimester of pregnancy, except in cases where the health of the patient is at risk or the pregnancy cannot survive,” Jones said.
Lockhart commented on the importance of these freedoms in state law.
“While currently in Virginia people have relatively good access to abortion and reproductive healthcare, it’s not constitutionally protected,” she said. “That’s why it’s so important that we enshrine reproductive freedom in Virginia’s Constitution so that we’re not at the whims of politicians and this healthcare is protected for years to come,” she said.
Jones highlighted PPAV’s efforts to place the amendment on the ballot, which started in 2022.
“It was a long process to get onto the ballot, including having to be passed through the legislature by both houses twice, with an intervening election,” they said.
They added that the amendment’s first passage was in the 2025 legislative session.
Jones noted the opening of early voting Friday, Sept. 18 and federal Election Day Tuesday, Nov. 3.
“All Virginians will have the opportunity to make their voices heard on reproductive freedom and ensure that this is the decision that is made between patients and their trusted healthcare providers and not politicians,” they said.
Lockhart outlined Virginia’s existing legislation in relation to the states surrounding it.
“We know that Virginia is a key access state for abortion because of the abortion bans we’ve seen across the South,” she said. “We’ve seen an influx of patients coming from out of state because Virginia is the only state in the South that has abortion access after 12 weeks and that doesn’t have a waiting period, which we see across the South with states that do have some access.”
The College of William and Mary’s Planned Parenthood Generation Action chapter, known as Vox, is getting involved in the effort to ratify this amendment.
Lockhart cited Vox’s efforts, saying that tabling will occur throughout the semester. The chapter also plans to host a door-knocking day of action in neighborhoods around campus.
Jones added that as of Saturday, Aug. 15, PPAV has officially started its outreach efforts, including door-knocking and phone banking.
PPAV is also planning a Student Invasion Weekend, where advocates from the amendment’s campaign will be tabling at the College. This will occur the weekend of Saturday, Sept. 12.
Jones emphasized the support the campaign hopes to inspire through its outreach efforts.
“We know how important it can be for people to hear from a person who’s had these experiences, and it can really change people’s minds,” they said. “While we know that this amendment is incredibly, incredibly popular, we also know that not everyone knows about it yet, and people can be confused.”
Jones reflected on potential pushback to the amendment’s campaign.
“There’s an active misinformation campaign from the anti-abortion side about this amendment,” they said. “So we need to make sure that people understand what this amendment really does, what it is and why it’s so important to vote.”
