Virginia earns ”F” grade in protecting women’s reproductive rights from NARAL Pro-Choice America, according to new ”Who Decides” report

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Today, NARAL Pro-Choice America released its annual report Who Decides? The Status of Women’s Reproductive Rights in the United States, in which states are graded based on the availability and quality of women’s reproductive health care. In 2014, Virginia received an “F” and ranked 42nd in the nation for its ability to provide those services.

To read the report, please visit: www.WhoDecides.org

“It is unconscionable that 92 percent of counties in the Commonwealth have no abortion clinic,” said Tarina Keene, executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia. “Due to mandatory delays, state-required ultrasounds and burdensome restrictions on women’s centers, Virginia women are being forced to travel further, pay more, and overcome increasingly high barriers to exercise their constitutional right to safe, legal abortion. This failing grade is yet another sign of Virginia’s failure to ensure the health and rights of our women and families—and it is nothing short of unacceptable. As the 2015 legislative session begins, we urge the Commonwealth’s legislators to reverse course and work to pass commonsense legislation that will protect and improve women’s health.”

Women in Virginia can be refused reproductive-health services, information, or referrals, while abortion providers are subjected to burdensome restrictions not applied to other medical professionals.

“Virginia gets a failing grade because the government is failing its residents,” said Ilyse Hogue, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America. “We live in a country where the overwhelming majority of people believe in legal access to abortion. It’s high time for the Virginia legislature, and lawmakers across this country, protect the ability of women to make our own decisions.”