RICHMOND — Republican state Sen. Siobhan S. Dunnavant, facing a tough reelection fight after redistricting turned her territory blue and the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade, aims to get out front on the issue of abortion with a video launched early Monday morning.
Virginia
Post Roe, Va. doctor-state senator stakes out nuanced abortion stance
Her policy plan, introduced in the ad and fleshed out in an interview with The Washington Post last week, is significantly more restrictive than current Virginia law but defies easy comparisons to the antiabortion legislation that her fellow Republicans have recently proposed in the state — more permissive in some aspects, less so in others.
“This is a really hard subject,” Dunnavant told The Post. “I feel compelled based on my life experience to step forward and … find common ground.”
The ad — online only for now — is an early effort by Dunnavant to define herself on a critical topic before her Democratic challenger, Del. Schuyler T. VanValkenburg (D-Henrico), has a chance to do so. The move speaks to the prominent role abortion will play in the race, which is sure to draw tremendous national money and attention given Virginia’s status as the only state in the South that hasn’t tightened abortion restrictions in the year since the Supreme Court overturned Roe, the landmark ruling that for nearly 50 years guaranteed the right to abortion nationwide.
The ad comes as most Virginia politicians are focused on June 20 primaries for state Senate and House seats across the state. But Dunnavant and VanValkenburg are already in general election mode, having faced no competition for their parties’ nomination in the 16th Senate District, which covers part of Henrico County and leans blue under newly drawn maps.
The Dunnavant-VanValkenburg matchup is expected to be among the most hard-fought of the Nov. 7 elections, when all 40 seats in the Senate and 100 in the House of Delegates will be on the ballot.
“As an OB/GYN, I’ve cared for moms and babies and shared moments of great joy and heartache,” Dunnavant says at the start of the ad, speaking directly to the camera from her kitchen. “My own experience as a mother has informed my care and my patients’ experiences have shaped me. This is the perspective I bring to the conversation on abortion.”
The tone of the spot — from the soft music playing in the background to the use of “conversation” rather than “debate” — seems intended to cool the heated emotions the topic typically triggers. As Dunnavant goes on to spell out her position, she says nothing about “banning” the procedure but allowing it to “remain legal up to 15 weeks.”
Abortion is lawful in Virginia during the first and second trimesters of a pregnancy, through about 26 weeks. The procedure is allowed in the third trimester only if three doctors certify that continuing the pregnancy is “likely to result in the death of the woman or substantially and irremediably impair the mental or physical health of the woman,” state code says.
Dunnavant said she supports legal abortion for any reason up to 15 weeks — and after that in cases of rape and incest, when the mother’s life (but not her mental or physical health) is at risk, and in cases of severe fetal anomalies.
But she would put a time limit on those exceptions, supporting abortion in those cases only up to the point of viability, which she says ranges from 22 to 24 weeks of gestation. After that point, she said doctors, while prioritizing the mother’s life, should deliver the baby rather than abort. Delivery — typically by C-section in an emergency — would put the mother at no greater physical risk than abortion, she said.
“The life of the mother is always preeminent,” she told The Post. “It’s just an extraordinary situation that I’ve never seen that would require killing a baby to save a mother in the third trimester.”
Describing her position in the ad, she says: “After 15 weeks there should be reasonable exceptions for rape, incest, life of the mother and severe fetal anomalies. What I cannot accept is the current Virginia law that allows for abortion up to the moment of birth. As a physician, I know this is not reasonable. It is unnecessary, extreme and heartbreaking.”
Time limits on exceptions have not been a typical feature of abortion legislation in Virginia’s Capitol. The bill that Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) backed this year, for example, called for a ban after 15 weeks with certain exceptions but no cutoff.
Youngkin’s exceptions were rape and incest, and if continuing the pregnancy could result in the mother’s death or could “substantially and irreversibly impair … [her] major bodily functions, not including psychological or emotional conditions.” He did not support exceptions for severe fetal anomalies.
Dunnavant said she also would seek legislation, as she did without success earlier this year, to clarify that abortion restrictions do not apply to nonviable pregnancies. She said the measure is needed to ensure women can get access to lifesaving care for emergencies, such as incomplete miscarriages and ectopic pregnancies.
This is a developing story. It will be updated.