Abstract
In its 2022 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the United States Supreme Court found that there is no constitutional right to an abortion, overturning nearly fifty years of precedent set by Roe v. Wade.
In his concurrence in Dobbs, Justice Clarence Thomas wrote that the Court “should reconsider” its past decision in Griswold v. Connecticut. The 1965 case found that married people have a constitutional right to contraception, which Eisenstadt v. Baird extended to unmarried individuals in 1972.
In response to Thomas’ words and to growing threats to reproductive freedom post-Dobbs, lawmakers in Congress and in state legislatures across the country have introduced bills that would codify the right to contraception. Polling shows the legislation is popular across party lines, but efforts have been largely thwarted by Republican legislators and extremist forces who inaccurately claim intrauterine devices and emergency contraceptives are abortifacients. This article will explore the 2024 trajectory of Virginia’s Right to Contraception Act, which passed out of both chambers of the General Assembly but was ultimately vetoed by Governor Glenn Youngkin.
Recommended Citation
Katie Baker & Christopher Fleming,
Reconsidering Griswold: Amid Post-Dobbs Threats to Reproductive Freedom, Youngkin Vetoes the Virginia Right to Contraception Act,
28
Rich. Pub. Int. L. Rev.
125
(2024).
Available at:
https://scholarship.richmond.edu/pilr/vol28/iss2/4