On Tuesday, the North Carolina State Senate overrode a veto by Governor Roy Cooper on a bill to prevent abortions after 12 weeks. While this new law will save many lives in North Carolina, abortion remains legal before 12 weeks. Most abortions happen during the first 10 weeks of pregnancy.

Now Virginia Democrats are announcing their intention to make Virginia a “destination state” for abortions. With critical elections in Virginia this fall, they know that they must hold the Senate and gain control of the House of Delegates in order to turn Virginia into a place where unlimited abortions are available and paid for with our taxes.

“It is extremely sad that the pro-abortion Democrat leaders in Virginia are prepared to make Virginia a ‘destination state’ for abortions on demand through all nine months of pregnancy,” said Olivia Gans Turner, President of the Virginia Society for Human Life (VSHL). “Their consistent opposition to any reasonable laws that respect where most Americans and Virginians are on the abortion issue is deeply troubling. They have even announced their desire to enshrine a permanent, unrestricted ‘Right to Abortion’ into the Virginia Constitution.”

In polling done earlier this year by McLaughlin and Associates, 70% of respondents stated that they thought abortion should only be legal under very limited circumstances, including the life of the mother or rape and incest with reporting (less than 5% of abortions are done in the United States for those reasons). Another 60% oppose using tax dollars to fund abortions.

Pro-life Republicans in the General Assembly have been committed to passing reasonable laws on abortion, including the bill to protect unborn babies who can feel pain, and a bill to provide medical care to babies who survive an abortion. Radical pro-abortion members of the Virginia Senate, led by Senator Louise Lucas, blocked every rational pro-life bill that went to the Senate from the House of Delegates.

“The Virginia Democratic party is way out of step with most of Virginia and are only committed to the abortion groups that fund so many of them,” said Turner. “Abortion with no limits does not help women and it kills their babies. It is not good medicine or real health care. Tragically, it is big business in Virginia now.”