Sears has an extensive record attacking reproductive rights

VIRGINIA – New reporting from the Associated Press details the “vivid policy differences” on abortion between Abigail Spanberger and Winsome Earle-Sears. While Spanberger is committed to protecting reproductive freedom, Sears “has been an outspoken abortion rights opponent throughout her political career.” 
 
Sears has an extensive record supporting an abortion ban and vowing to do “everything in [her] power” to end abortion in Virginia. During the gubernatorial debate, Sears confirmed she would change the Virginia law that currently protects access to abortion if she has the chance.  
 
Associated Press: Republican Winsome Earle-Sears and Democrat Abigail Spanberger spar over abortion in Virginia

• Rae Pickett stepped onto Richell Hines’ front stoop wearing a pink T-shirt that foretold the case she hoped to make to Virginia voters as she knocked on doors on a sunny Saturday in early October.
• The polite exchange that followed between Pickett and Hines revealed the complexity of one of the most vivid policy differences between the two women vying to be the first female governor of Virginia — Democrat Abigail Spanberger and Republican Winsome Earle-Sears. The winner will likely influence abortion law in the only Southern state that’s maintained broad access to abortion since the U.S. Supreme Court in 2022 eliminated a national right to the procedure.
• Spanberger, a former congresswoman, supports a proposed state constitutional amendment that will reach voters only if Democrats maintain their House of Delegates majority. Earle-Sears, Virginia’s lieutenant governor, has been an outspoken abortion rights opponent throughout her political career.
• About 6 in 10 Virginia voters in the 2024 presidential election said abortion should be legal in all or most cases, according to AP VoteCast, a survey of interviews with registered voters. More than half of Virginia voters said they’d oppose banning most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy nationwide.
• [...] 62% of U.S. voters last November said abortion should be legal in at least “most” cases.
• Earle-Sears sidestepped a question about abortion, which she once called “wicked” in a clip Spanberger has featured in an ad.
• Spanberger countered by noting women who suffered life-threatening and, in some cases, fatal infections from pregnancy complications but could not receive medically necessary abortions in states that adopted restrictions after the 2022 Supreme Court decision.
• “Women have died,” Spanberger said. “If my opponent were to become governor, that is what she would inflict upon Virginia.”
• Spanberger, when asked about restrictions, opted first for a legalistic explanation of “the Roe standard” that Supreme Court justices overturned. She affirmed her support for the constitutional amendment that she argues would protect that standard. Pressed by moderators, she endorsed existing Virginia law that includes parental consent for minors seeking abortions and certain controls on third-trimester procedures.
• Despite potential consequences in Virginia and beyond, abortion is one of many issues voters are weighing.
• About three-quarters of Virginia voters in the 2024 presidential election said abortion policy had an impact on which candidates they supported in that election, and about 7 in 10 said abortion policy was an important factor in their vote. 

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