Legislative Session 2024

This bill addresses cost barriers to contraceptive access and equity by eliminating burdensome co-pays, cost-sharing, reimbursement requirements, and coverage delays. 

The ill requires insurers, corporations, and health maintenance organizations to offer coverage for prescription contraceptive drugs, devices, or therapeutic equivalents without cost-sharing.

• *Insurance companies are ALREADY covering these basic services*
  This is not a new requirement that would raise insurance costs significantly. It simply enshrines popular elements of the Affordable Care Act in the Virginia Code.

Prevents Virginia Board of Medicine from penalizing providers who perform an abortion that is legal in Virginia on a person from another state and is subsequently penalized in any manner by that other state.

• If the procedure is legal in Virginia and is performed in Virginia by a Virginia provider, the Board shall not impose any penalties on the provider for performing the procedure
• Decisions about reproductive healthcare should be made by the individual and a trusted medical provider. Providers should not be penalized for performing legal healthcare procedures.

Prohibits any search warrant or subpoena from being issued for menstrual data that is stored on third-party apps used to track period health.

• Protection of privacy is critical in a time when reproductive healthcare is under attack.
• Personal menstrual data could be used to criminalize pregnancy outcomes by totally invading a person’s right to private healthcare information.
• This is a slippery slope and sets a dangerous precedent for what private health information the government can access

Provides that no person charged with a criminal violation of a law in another state shall be extradited if the alleged violation is related to reproductive healthcare that is legal in Virginia

• Virginia is currently the only state in the South without a Post-Roe abortion ban. We have the opportunity to be an access point for those in states where abortion is illegal or severely restricted.
  
• ~ 1 in 5 patients are now traveling out of state to access abortion care.
  
• It’s important to protect providers from the criminalization of critical care and patients from the criminalization of pregnancy status and outcomes.

• We’ve said it a thousand times, and we will keep saying it: ALL abortion bans cause harm and prevent people from accessing the care they need. People deserve access to abortion in their communities free from restrictions and stigma.
• Bans on abortion are intended to criminalize medical professionals and shame and punish pregnant people for seeking care. 
• All abortion bans, regardless of their arbitrary “week”, harm pregnant people by preventing them from accessing critical and sometimes life-saving care. No abortion ban is a compromise. 
• Forcing someone to continue a pregnancy against their will violates their basic humanity, their rights, and their freedom.  
• Abortion bans increase racial and socioeconomic disparities by forcing marginalized groups to carry a pregnancy to term when many are unable to travel to another state for care.  
• We can never fully know a pregnant person’s circumstances, but we can all agree that important medical decisions should be between a patient and their doctor, not politicians. Medical providers must be able to meet the needs of their patients without political interference.  
• Pregnancy is too complex for one size fits all laws. We must respect the decisions of pregnant people and trust the expert advice of medical providers when it comes to making decisions regarding pregnancy.

• These types of bills aim to control pregnant people and criminalize pregnancy and abortion. 
• These bills are intended to oppose safe and legal abortion, NOT to protect the safety and well-being of pregnant people. Their ultimate goal is to use sneaky bills like this to eliminate access to critical reproductive healthcare services.