Abortion & Reproductive Healthcare Access

Senator Favola is a leading advocate for reproductive rights in the state Senate, where she chairs the Women’s Healthcare Caucus. Senator Favola believes that the decision to have an abortion should remain between a patient and their doctor, and has fought to ensure that abortion remains safe, legal, and accessible in Virginia. She is a strong advocate for amending the Virginia Constitution to guarantee the right to abortion access.

As part of the Democratic majority in the Senate, Senator Favola has helped defeat extreme and dangerous anti-choice legislation, protecting reproductive freedom in Virginia. She also served as a co-patron on the landmark Reproductive Health Protection Act, passed in 2020. This law eliminated medically unnecessary restrictions on reproductive healthcare including the ultrasound requirement, the mandatory 24-hour waiting period, and the biased counseling requirement. It also eliminated targeted restrictions on abortion providers, (TRAP laws) that required hospital-style building standards, which were intended to shut down abortion clinics and prevent access to abortion. Senator Favola was also the co-sponsor of the law that allowed private insurance companies offering plans on the state-hosted insurance exchange to provide abortion coverage. The passage of these laws greatly improved access to abortion care in the Commonwealth and created an environment that provided patients with more privacy and dignity.

In 2024, she passed a new law to prohibit law enforcement from obtaining private menstrual health data through court orders or search warrants. She has also served as chief patron of a bill to protect healthcare professionals and patients from extradition to other states where they could be criminally prosecuted for abortions performed legally in Virginia. Governor Youngkin vetoed this bill in 2024.