Del. Amanda Batten Attempts to Reposition Herself as a Moderate on Reproductive Healthcare
Batten is out of touch with her district and too extreme for the vast majority of Virginians who support access to abortion
STATEMENT FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Date: Monday, October 6, 2025
Contact: Chrisi West, Communications Manager, cwest@reprorisingva.org
Alexandria, VA – Since the Dobbs decision in 2022 which revoked American’s right to abortion, we have seen dozens of people die, nearly die, or lose their ability to have children in the future after being denied lifesaving and urgent abortion care in states where abortion has been banned or severely restricted. It’s clear – Delegate Amanda Batten (R-Williamsburg) wants to take Virginians there. But she is trying to hide her true intentions.
Despite Delegate Batten’s claims in the Virginia Mercury that she “supports exceptions for rape, incest, life of the mother and viability,” she has consistently voted against protecting access to birth control, supported Governor Youngkin’s proposed abortion ban, signed on to an amici curiae brief in support of overturning Roe v. Wade, and was very recently endorsed by the National Right to Life Committee, an extremist anti-abortion organization that believes life begins at conception and that abortion should be totally banned.
In 2021, Delegate Batten signed an anti-abortion pledge with Students for Life Action that includes just some of the following extremist language contradicting Batten’s new positioning (emphasis REPRO Rising Virginia’s):
“All preborn children must be protected from the violence of abortion regardless of how they came to be, if they are considered viable, or whether they are proven to feel pain.” The pledge states, “I PLEDGE:
- My commitment to making abortion unthinkable and unavailable, with the full knowledge that the abortion industry will simply encourage earlier and earlier abortions until we make abortion illegal from the moment a human being begins to exist.
- To seek equal justice for the preborn, regardless of their stage of gestation or any other external factor.
- That my end goal is complete abortion abolition, consistent with my belief that preborn humans are equal to born humans from the moment of conception
“Sometimes candidates tell you who they are, and sometimes they show you. Delegate Amanda Batten has shown herself to be a consistent opponent to contraception, access to abortion care, and the full spectrum of reproductive healthcare that all Virginians deserve. She’s out of touch with her district and too extreme for the vast majority of Virginians who support access to abortion care and birth control,”* stated Executive Director Tarina Keene.
Republican Delegate Batten is in a close race with Democrat Jessica Anderson in the House District 71 election. REPRO Rising Virginia has endorsed Anderson and stands strongly opposed to Delegate Batten’s dangerous agenda to ban abortion care and limit contraception access for Virginians. She has consistently received D’s and F’s on REPRO Rising Virginia’s annual Reproductive Freedom Legislative Scorecard.
* According to a 2025 Pew Research Study, 61 percent of Virginians say abortion should be legal in all/most cases.
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