Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares said in Richmond that women who seek abortions should not be prosecuted
Republican Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares said Wednesday at an annual anti-abortion rally and march in Richmond that he doesn’t think women should be prosecuted for getting abortions.
“The message of pro-life is kindness. And some people in this country have said that women who choose to have an abortion should be prosecuted, he said, “That’s not right.” Miyares said that the anti-abortion movement should instead help charities that help mothers who are having trouble.
The attorney general was one of several people who spoke at the “Virginia March for Life” on Wednesday. This was the first time since last year’s decision by the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade that the annual event took place.
Capitol Police say that about 1,500 people gathered on Capitol Square to hear the speeches and then marched peacefully through the streets nearby. Speakers cheered the Supreme Court’s decision and urged the crowd to get involved and put pressure on their elected officials to do more to limit abortion in Virginia, which has some of the most liberal laws in the South.
“Today is our chance to be heard and to show that this is important to the people of Virginia. And to show that we are the kind of people who will show up, and that we will take this issue all the way to the polls,” said Victoria Cobb, president of The Family Foundation of Virginia.
In November, you can vote for every seat in the General Assembly.
After the speeches, for the second year in a row, Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin joined the crowd. Before the march began, he said a few words.
Youngkin said he was “extremely disappointed” that the Democrats who run the state Senate have so far been proud to block a number of bills that would make it harder to get an abortion. Democrats have also tried to pass a resolution that would start a long process of writing abortion protections into the state constitution. However, the GOP-controlled House has voted against this bill.
He said, “They don’t understand Virginians, and that’s why we’re here today.”
After the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision last year, Youngkin said he hoped the politically divided General Assembly would send him a bill that would ban abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy, with exceptions for rape, incest, and the mother’s life.
Last week, this bill and others were shot down in the Senate.
Sen. L. Louise Lucas said at the time, “The brick wall will stand strong as long as Senate Democrats have the majority, and these extreme bills will never pass.”
Republicans in the House have been pushing for a tax credit for adoption, a bill that would require certain counseling before an abortion, and a bill that would protect any baby born alive after an abortion attempt. Proponents of abortion rights say that doctors are already required to give the right care in these situations.
Other laws that are stricter on abortion have not been discussed in that chamber.
In his speech, Miyares didn’t talk about any specific elected official. But Alabama’s attorney general recently got a lot of attention for comments that at first made it sound like pregnant women who took the abortion pill could be charged with a crime.
Many of the bills this session that would have limited abortions in Virginia would have punished medical providers, not patients, for breaking their rules.
Miyares changed the state’s position on the abortion case before the Supreme Court last year. This was one of the first things he did as attorney general. His office said that the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, which upheld the constitutional right to an abortion, and the 1992 Planned Parenthood v. Casey case, which upheld Roe but set a new standard for judging restrictions, “were wrongly decided.”
