Virginia governor vetoes bills intended to shield law-breaking abortionists

Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin vetoed four bills passed by the legislature earlier this year, which would have banned the state from extraditing abortionists who violated pro-life laws in another state, as well as banned the Board of Medicine from investigating out-of-state abortion violations.

SB 716/HB 519 would have banned the Virginia Board of Medicine from taking disciplinary action against abortionists who knowingly violate abortion laws in other states. The bill passed the Senate on February 6 with a vote of 21-18, and the House on Tuesday 54-45.

SB 15/HB 1539, meanwhile, would have banned Virginia from extraditing abortionists who broke abortion-related laws in other states. That bill passed the Senate with a vote of 21-19, and the House with a vote of 53-45.

In his veto statements, Youngkin explained that the bills serve to put women further at risk, and infringe upon the mission of the Virginia Board of Medicine:

The primary mission of the Board of Medicine is to protect the public from incompetent, dangerous, and unprofessional medical providers. This legislation compromises the Board’s ability to fulfill that mission.

This bill also opens the door to a resurgence of unsafe, risky abortions occurring outside of clinical settings, and it places any unprofessional behavior during an abortion outside the Board’s jurisdiction for disciplinary action.

In the pursuit of mitigating disciplinary actions by the Board of Medicine against physicians performing abortions, this proposal jeopardizes the safety of women and undermines the duty of the Board in providing necessary disciplinary measures against doctors engaging in unsafe practices.

Regarding SB15/HB1539, he further added, “The extradition process among the states has a long and successful history within an established legal framework required by the U.S. Constitution. This bill would undermine that framework and disrupt the extradition laws in all fifty states. Our cooperative extradition system could collapse if individual states were to carve out crimes for which they would not recognize codified laws because of differing political positions.”

In a series of threads written on X (formerly Twitter), Planned Parenthood slammed Youngkin’s vetoes.

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“We are deeply disappointed by Governor Youngkin’s decision to veto this legislation aimed at protecting health care professionals who provide essential, time-sensitive abortion care,” the nation’s number one abortion organization wrote. “These bills represented a vital safeguard against the overreach of hostile states into our commonwealth, ensuring that those who provide abortion care can continue their work without fear of unwarranted penalties from out-of-state actors. These bills would have ensured that Virginia law governs what happens in Virginia. By vetoing these bills, failing to take an important stand against overzealous prosecution, the [governor] has sent a discouraging message to VA health care professionals dedicated to reproductive rights and to the patients that rely on the availability of essential health services.”

The organization added that lawmakers in the state should “leverage every opportunity to protect access to abortion, ensuring it remains accessible for Virginians and for our neighbors seeking refuge from restrictive laws in their own states,” adding that “Virginians do not deserve to live with the uncertainty and chaos that comes with regular attacks to essential health care.”

The abortion organization concluded by calling for abortion to be made a constitutional right in Virginia.

The Virginia Society for Human Life (VSHL), however, applauded Youngkin’s vetoes in a press release. “Women in other states who may have been injured by abortion practitioners willing to break the laws of other places need to be sure that Virginia will not provide a hiding place for these rogue abortionists,” Olivia Gans Turner, president of VSHL, said. “Thank you, Gov. Youngkin for rejecting this dangerous bill.”

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