Anti-abortion rally at state Capitol sparks discussion among Virginians

Andrew Kerley, Audience Editor

Editor’s note: Subject matters could be offensive or disturbing to some readers.

March for Life held a rally on Feb. 1 at the state Capitol. Since then, advocates on both sides of the issue continue to speak up as the General Assembly continues in session until Feb. 25. 

Some organizations include Virginia Society for Human Life and Planned Parenthood Advocates of Virginia that have been sharing resources and legislative updates for their followers.

“We march because we envision a future world where the beauty and dignity of every human life are valued and protected,” the March for Life, an organization protesting the practice and legality of abortion, website states. 

The rally came less than a week after the blocking of Senate Bills 1284, 1385 and 1483, and a week before the blocking of House Bill 1385. 

• SB 1284 would have prohibited abortion except for cases in which the pregnant person’s life was in danger or the pregnancy was a result of rape or incest.
• SB 1385 would have prohibited abortion after the first 15 weeks of pregnancy, except for cases in which the pregnant person’s life was in danger or the pregnancy was a result of rape or incest.
• SB 1483 would have prohibited abortion after the first 24 weeks of pregnancy except for cases in which the pregnant person’s life was in danger. 
• HB 1385 would have abolished the practice of abortion with no exceptions.

Sen. Siobhan Dunnavant, R-Henrico, introduced SB 1483. She was the only Republican to vote against the other two Senate bills. 

“I brought this bill because I actually think it’s something we can agree on,” Dunnavant said to the Senate Education and Health subcommittee. “There are sometimes things we have to do in order to take down some of the political hyperbole on issues so we can actually get the right thing done.”

Dunnavant has been a practicing OB-GYN for over 25 years, according to Dunnavant.

“The advancements we’ve made in medicine are staggering,” Dunnavant stated. “The age of viability in the United States of America has moved from 28 weeks to 24 weeks and in some cases, 22 weeks. When a child can live outside of the womb, there’s absolutely no reason to abort that child in order to protect the mother.”

Dunnavant was one of four lawmakers that had been previously sponsored by Gov. Glenn Youngkin on the day of Roe v. Wade’s overturning to create anti-abortion legislation, according to Youngkin’s statement. 

After Attorney General Jason Miyares, Del. Emily Brewer, R-Isle of Wight, March for Life staff members and guests from religious organizations gave speeches at Governor’s Drive, the crowd marched down Broad Street, with Youngkin joining them. 

“I believe that we are supposed to express our views, and the March for Life is a way for me to express my views. Virginians elected a pro-life Governor,” Youngkin told a reporter for The Daily Signal while marching. “I think this is an amazingly inspiring collection of people who’ve come out to stand for life. That’s why I’m happy to be here.”

Hundreds of protesters flooded Richmond’s downtown area.

“We believe in the Bible. We believe that life was created by Jesus Christ is sacred,” said Marvin Camper, a protestor and member of the Upper Room Church of God In Christ. 

The church hosts a team evangelicals called “The Happy Warriors,” whose goal is to “reverse the shameful facts regarding abortion, which can be described as nothing less than a devastating genocide against the Black community,” according to its website.

“No one has the right to take a life,” Camper said. “The fact that our nation has aborted around 60 million babies is horrible.”

620,327 abortions were reported in the year of 2020, according to a study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

Tempest Britt, a Richmond resident and abortion rights protester, attended the rally in opposition. Britt played music on a boombox strapped to his belt in an effort to “make some noise and piss people off,” according to Britt. 

“As long as patriarchy exists, abortion needs to exist,” Britt said. “Even if patriarchy did not exist, abortion is just another aspect of women controlling their own bodies and futures. Being forced to have a baby is not only a traumatic experience in itself, but it comes with a lifetime of baggage.”

Also strapped to Britt’s belt was a copy of “Letters From a Warzone,” a book by feminist Andrea Dworkin. 

“I just finished reading one of her speeches about a group of men who wanted to change manhood,” Britt said. “The title of the speech was ‘I want a truce, where one day there is no rape.’ The idea is that men need to get their act together just as much as women need to fight against it.”

March for Life protester and Bristol, Virginia resident Angie Bush believes that abortion should be considered murder.

“Taking the life of a child will not heal the woman,” Bush said. “It [being raped] is such a great wound that the woman is already carrying. To wound her again with an abortion would be compounding injustice. The punishment needs to be on the person who fathered the child.”

Jonathan Darnel, an anti-abortion advocate, attended the rally, parading a large banner reading “Waiting on a court to change its mind was a horrible, cowardly strategy.”

“I’m pro-life, but I believe that pro-life movement has made numerous mistakes,” Darnel said. “We’ve allowed courts to tell us what the law means instead of just reading the law, acting upon it and demanding that our executives do what is right. I don’t believe in judicial supremacy, the idea that a court on any level can tell you what the law means.”  

Darnel was one of nine to be indicted in March 2022 with conspiracy against the “Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act” and “Obstructing Patients and Providers of a Reproductive Health Services Facility” after using rope and chain to blockade the Washington Surgi-Clinic in 2020, according to The United States Department of Justice.

“I think that there’s absolutely no way that our country is going to turn the faucet off on abortions,” said protester Christa Duvon. “They’re enculturated right now, and some people feel that they have a right to them. I think that steps will be made incrementally. The real change will come when people recognize life is a gift from God.” 

Caitlin Ngo, a VCU computer science student, believes that having a baby in college could be a “really nerve-wracking experience,” according to Ngo. 

“If I were to have a baby in college I think I would abort it, for now, because I’m not financially stable,” Ngo said. “Greater sex education and more access to contraceptives would be beneficial.”

VCU offers a “Condoms Concierge” system, through which students can request free contraceptives up to 15 items per week, according to its website. 

“Some people, like some of my friends, don’t believe in abortions, but they still are pro choice because they’re not going to dictate what other people want to do,” Ngo said.

Autumn Walser is president of VCU’s Students For Life chapter, a nonprofit organization seeking to train, mobilize and recruit the “pro-life generation,” according to Walser. 

“We think adoption is a very good option because people are desperate to adopt newborn babies in the United States,” Walser said. “There is just a shortage of newborn babies to be adopted.”

There are no national statistics on how many people are willing to adopt, but experts estimate it is somewhere between one and two million couples, according to Adoption Network. 

“In the case of the mother’s life being in danger, there are options such as an early delivery,” Walser said. “If she’s already viable in pregnancy, there would be no reason to have an abortion if the baby can survive with early delivery.”

Students For Life will “be there” for students with unexpected pregnancies, according to Walser. 

“We will fight for their Title IX rights to not be discriminated against by their school because of their pregnancy,” Walser said. “We’re also trying to work with providing more daycare services and stuff like that at VCU.”

Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 does not allow for exclusion or discrimination on the basis of sex in any institute, according to the United States Department of Education. 

“Everyone here [VCU] is rightfully invested in it [abortion issues], very emotionally attached to it,” Walser said. “However, that emotion comes to the forefront when they just see the pro-life label and they instantly think the worst.

None have ever taken the time to try and understand their movement, according to Walser. 

“It gets distorted that we hate women, but we love women a lot,” Walser said.

Richmond resident Alo Hodge said getting an abortion should be the choice of the pregnant person.

“If we had greater access to sex education and contraceptives, along with so many other things, pretty much most of the problems that we have could be solved,” Hodge said. “It’s the same deal with mental illness, for example. If we had classes in school on emotional regulation, the topic would be less stigmatized or seen as taboo.”

Students in Virginia are not required to learn sex education in schools, as parents or guardians must be provided with the opportunity to withdraw students from the class, according to the CDC. 

“People are not going to stop having abortions,” Hodge said. “They’re just going to stop having safe abortions.” 

Data shows that where abortion is illegal or highly restricted, people may resort to unsafe means including self-inflicted abdominal and bodily trauma, ingestion of dangerous chemicals and reliance on unqualified or predatory abortion providers, according to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, or ACOG.

Roughly 25 million women around the world resort to unsafe abortions each year, accounting for as many as 15% of all maternal deaths, according to ACOG.

“We have the data of what unsafe abortion practices can do,” said VCU English and psychology student Madelaine Dye. “They can irreparably harm the people that are operated on and cause a lot of continuous health issues.”

Unsafe abortions can lead to physical and mental health complications, along with social and financial burdens for women, communities and health systems, according to the World Health Organization.

“An issue with states allowing abortions in the cases of rape or incest is that we all know sexual violence is rarely properly documented,” Dye said. “Even so, in smaller towns, going to a police force that may potentially know your attacker can have a social harm. A lot of women can’t go forward with it. When teenagers need abortions and you’re asking them to document something they already struggled with in order to get a medical procedure, I find it very harmful.”

Only 310 out of every 1,000 sexual assaults are reported to police, according to Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network.

“It is very frustrating that this seems to be a constant debate,” Dye said. “We constantly make it a morality issue, having these metrics of trimesters and saying that women need to be medically at risk. However, that doesn’t consider things that women might be going through like health issues that pregnancy would make even worse or being unable to work. We’re letting politicians decide when it should be women deciding if this is the right decision for themselves.”