This story was reported and written by VPM News
While Virginia is one of the few states in the South still offering abortions, a new study finds the commonwealth still has legal restrictions that may prevent people from accessing abortions.
Over the summer, researchers with the RAND Corporation reviewed the state’s existing legislation and interviewed two dozen clinician and non-clinician care providers about their experiences in Virginia.
The study found that while the Reproductive Health Protection Act passed by Virginia’s General Assembly in 2020 reduced roadblocks for patients seeking abortions, it left some restrictions behind, including ones impacting young and poor patients.
Julia Rollinson, senior policy researcher at RAND, said the state’s reproductive health law “changed the landscape” over the past five years by removing waiting periods, ultrasound and counseling requirements and other restrictions that were limiting access in the state.
Researchers found while speaking to care providers that there was some remaining confusion about who could legally perform abortions and where certain procedures could be provided.
Rollinson and her team of researchers thought it was “fascinating” that Virginia’s abortion laws and policies are found in the state’s criminal code, and an abortion provided by anyone not outlined in the policy could be charged with a Class 4 felony.
The code lays out exceptions to this law where abortion is legal, including rape and incest. It also spells out who is permitted to provide the procedure and where, specific to the trimester of pregnancy.The General Assembly is expected to propose a constitutional amendment codifying abortion access in the state. If adopted, Rollinson said that language could remove abortion policy from the criminal code.
“There is a lot of excitement or hope if there is a constitutional amendment in Virginia around reproductive health to finally change that framing, and frame how reproductive health care is delivered in the state,” Rollinson said.
Virginia’s code has caused confusion about where clinicians can perform abortions after the first trimester. The law that addresses second-trimester abortions says they must be performed in a state-licensed hospital.
A 2019 federal district court ruling deemed that rule unconstitutional, but the language in the code hasn’t been updated, leaving clinicians unsure about the legal ramifications for providing the procedure outside of a hospital setting.
“It created some confusion, understandably, among facilities, providers and others,” Rollinson said. “That is one where it was actually overruled.”
Virginia law requires three physicians to certify a third-trimester abortion as necessary for the patient’s health, and the procedure must be performed in a licensed hospital.
Rollinson said no Virginia-based providers who participated in the study performed abortions in the third trimester; instead, many of those cases were referred to clinicians in Washington, D.C. and Maryland.
Minors seeking abortions have to go through additional hurdles. Under Virginia law, unemancipated minors are required to provide notarized written parental or guardian consent to receive an abortion.
A judge may also provide consent for a minor. “One of the things we heard that’s certainly concerning…was even sometimes a lack of understanding or consistency in that judicial bypass process across different court systems,” Rollinson said. “Is there a consistent application of that process?”
As the number of people seeking abortions in Virginia increases, Rollinson said she was concerned that it would be even more difficult for the young and economically disadvantaged to receive care.
“As the demand continues to grow in Virginia, and the funding systems are stretched, particularly for abortion funds, folks are going to have fewer places that they can go to for some of that financial support to cover this.”
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