ICYMI: Virginia Reproductive Healthcare Patients and Providers Speak Out in Support of Question 1

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Press Contact: Mary Olivia Rentner

Richmond, VA. – Today, patients and providers joined a YES on 1 roundtable for a conversation about Virginia’s Reproductive Freedom Amendment.

Kenda Denia, Executive Director of Birth in Color and a Doula, spoke about the intersectionality of reproductive healthcare and the realities for families:

“And right now, too many families walk into pregnancy afraid. Afraid of not being heard. I’ve seen it in Black families, rural families, working families: who you are still shapes how you’re cared for. Afraid of what happens if something goes wrong. Afraid that a politician could step into a moment that should belong only to them. I refuse to let fear be the thing we pass down. That is why I stand with the Virginia Constitutional Amendment for Reproductive Freedom.”

Dr. Kimi Chernoby, an emergency medicine physician in Northern Virginia, spoke about the ever changing legal framework physicians are navigating:

“Where a physician previously could manage a miscarriage or ectopic with swift and definitive action–in many states physicians are now forced to pause and consider whether the care they deliver will land them in jail. These laws are why you have seen news story after news story about women who have been harmed, and even died, when they faced delays in care for their pregnancy complications. The direct harm that women are suffering as a result of abortion bans cannot be understated.”

Sara Sanatkar spoke about the importance of reproductive rights as someone who has needed reproductive healthcare and as an Iranian who grew up without any bodily autonomy:

“Patients should not have to be geographically lucky to access lifesaving reproductive healthcare. Virginians now have the opportunity to decide whether reproductive freedom will remain vulnerable to political interference or be fundamentally protected in the only Southern state where abortion remains broadly accessible.”

Heather St. Amand spoke to the life-saving abortion care she received in Florida that is no longer available there and elsewhere in the South:

“I am alive today because I had access to reproductive health care. Three abortions, three very different reasons, none more valid than any other. All of this happened in the South, in the state of Florida—where were it to happen today I would not be safe and this story could have had a much different ending. We have an opportunity here in Virginia to make sure that every person has the ability to make decisions about when and how to start a family, and access to care that can be lifesaving.”

Kacia Kriener Putman shared how access to abortion enabled her to grow her family:

“A lot of people will try to tell you what reproductive freedom is. But what it truly is, is personal. For my family, reproductive healthcare is pro-life because I had doctors who could provide me with life-saving medical care if I needed it, pro-family because it made it possible for us to have our daughter, and pro-freedom because it kept the government out of our family decisions. Enshrining reproductive freedom in our state constitution means that we love and care for our neighbors and respect the personal decisions they make with their doctors.”

Han Jones, Campaign Manager, reiterated how high the stakes are this election:

“The stakes couldn’t be higher. We have seen the tragic consequences of abortion bans in our sister states. Children left motherless, sepsis rates soaring, maternal healthcare desserts worsening. We will not let that happen here in Virginia.”

Watch the full recording of these important conversations:

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Virginians for Reproductive Freedom is a coalition of Virginia families, doctors, nurses, and advocacy organizations who believe that all Virginians should be able to make decisions regarding their own reproductive healthcare, including abortion care, without government interference, and no one should be faced with criminal punishment for making these decisions or providing healthcare.