Breaking: Winsome Earle-Sears Declares She is 'Morally Opposed' to Reproductive Freedom
May 8, 2025
Virginia Mercury: “[...] One of the clearest signals Earle-Sears has sent concerning her views on abortion and reproductive health care since beginning her campaign for governor.”
VIRGINIA - New reporting from the Virginia Mercury detailed handwritten notes Winsome Earle-Sears left on the constitutional amendment that would protect reproductive freedom in Virginia, including contraception, abortion, and IVF. Sears wrote “I am morally opposed to this bill [...].” The story follows Sears’ previous notes detailing her being “morally opposed” to marriage equality.
Virginia Mercury: Earle-Sears ‘morally opposed’ to Virginia’s reproductive rights amendment, note shows
- Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears signed Virginia’s in-progress reproductive rights constitutional amendment, but noted her personal objection to it in a handwritten note on the bill.
- “I am morally opposed to this bill […]” she wrote above her signature.
- It is the second known message Earle-Sears has penned on a bill she signed but disagreed with - the first being her note of objection scrawled on a bill last year that would prohibit officials from denying marriage licenses to same-sex or interracial couples, as The Virginia Scope first reported.
- It is also one of the clearest signals Earle-Sears has sent concerning her views on abortion and reproductive health care since beginning her campaign for governor.
- A Sears campaign representative the Mercury reached Thursday afternoon said Earle-Sears had no comment on the matter.
- Early in her 2021 campaign for lieutenant governor, Earle-Sears had called abortion “genocide” and objected to the procedure in all instances, except for ones that could save the life of the pregnant person.
- Just over a month before the 2021 elections, she’d scrubbed anti-abortion messaging from her campaign website where she’d vowed to “do everything in my power” to stop abortions in Virginia.
- Governors don’t formally advance or block constitutional amendments, but should Virginia’s fail to advance, the next governor will be able to sign potential attempts to restrict or ban abortions within state code.
- With Earle-Sears gubernatorial opponent Abigail Spanberger in support of reproductive healthcare access - to include abortions, contraception and fertility treatments - their divergences on the issue may be a deciding factor for some voters later this year.
