On a slightly chilly morning earlier this month, the largest anti-abortion rally in Virginia was in preparation, the Virginia March for Life. Busses were unloading passengers from across the state. The Catholic fraternal organization Knights of Columbus were outside of The Family Foundation’s headquarters with a large sign that read “Equality Begins in the Womb.”
This year marked the seventh year of the annual event and the fourth consecutive year that Lieutenant Governor Winsome Sears gave a speech while Governor Glenn Youngkin joined the crowd as a participant at the front of march down Broad Street.
Watching Sears give her speech just reminded me about her inability to say the right thing. “And if life in the womb is not sacred…” Sears said on the microphone and I thought the logically follow up would be “nothing is sacred.” Instead Sears paused and shouted “then no lives matter. No lives matter.”
Sears also referenced a possible amendment to the Virginia Constitution that would guarantee the right to reproductive access and abortion. Sears said that the Republican Senators attempted to alter the amendment which was rejected. “They voted it down! And tears came to my eye.”
While Project 2025 might be a nightmare to liberals, Democrats, Virginia Planned Parenthood, and other abortion access advocates have pushed for their project for 2026. Democrats must hold their majority in the House of Delegates in order to let Virginians vote on the amendment in 2026.
By noon, Virginia Glenn Youngkin joined with the rally-goers as the march was about to hit the street. Beside Youngkin was Liberty University students and behind Youngkin was a small group known as the Progressive Anti-abortion Uprising or PAAU. Equipped with a megaphone, “Abortion is sexist. Abortion is oppression.”
With the PAAU was Lauren Handy who was recently released from federal prison. Handy was convicted of blockading an abortion clinic in Washington DC and had fetuses in her freezer. Handy received a pardon from President Donald Trump in January.
After the march, Handy spoke after the rally, “I like being in unity with people who agree with me.” When it came to talking about marching with the Governor Youngkin, Handy said that “everything we do is intentional.”
Blockading an abortion clinic is a federal offense under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (FACE Act.) During this year’s legislative session, Senator Scott Surovell carried a bill that would make it misdemeanor to block an abortion clinic in Virginia. Surovell cited that Trump would not enforce the federal law. Last month, Youngkin vetoed that bill.
In Youngkin explained in his veto, “This legislation is an unconstitutional time, place, and manner restriction on the God-given, constitutionally protected right to the freedom of speech.”
Handy and her co-defendants had their convictions upheld and federal courts determined that the FACE Act does not violate Constitutional rights contrary to Youngkin’s explanation. Without enforcement from the Federal government and the veto from Youngkin, abortion clinics are vulnerable to anti-abortion activists blocking abortion clinics in Virginia.
Main image: Glenn Youngkin at the Virginia March for Life in Richmond, Virginia. April 2, 2025 by Goad Gatsby
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