Youngkin reintroduces proposal to end state-funded abortions for fetal anomalies

BY: CHARLOTTE RENE WOODS - DECEMBER 19, 2024 4:03 PM

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Gov. Glenn Youngkin presents his proposed amendments to the state’s biennial budget before a joint meeting of the Virginia General Assembly’s money committees in Richmond on Wednesday. (Charlie Paullin/Virginia Mercury)

For the third consecutive year, Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s proposed budget includes language seeking to eliminate state-funded abortions for severe fetal anomalies. … Virginia law currently allows state insurance to cover abortions if a physician certifies that a fetus would be born with a “gross and totally incapacitating physical deformity or with a gross and totally incapacitating mental deficiency.” Diagnoses like anencephaly, where a fetus’ skull and brain fail to fully develop, fall under this category.

Youngkin’s proposed budget amendments strike language permitting state coverage for such procedures. The bill reads that “no expenditures from general or non-general fund sources may be made out of any appropriation by the General Assembly for providing abortion services, except otherwise as required by federal law or state statute,” with the state-funded exception removed.

The amendment has failed in past budget negotiations as the legislature was split between Democratic and Republican control. With Democrats now holding a majority in both chambers, the proposal faces even steeper opposition.

Despite this, Youngkin has continued to reintroduce the measure, aiming to reduce public funding spent on these abortions. Over the past four years, 121 state-funded abortions for severe fetal anomalies have been performed, according to the Virginia Department of Health. In 2020, two procedures cost the state about $5,000, while in 2024, 36 procedures cost approximately $61,000.

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