HB78 and HB1359: Please vote YES. We are a free state, not a police state. Law enforcement has no need for private menstrual health data; it has no bearing or use in criminal investigations. Please prevent it from being used to control people and make them afraid. HB1539 and HB1493: Please vote YES. Doctors should be free to practice safe, proven medical care that is legal in Virginia without fear of extradition. We don't have to be complicit in other states' cruelty and ignorance, nor turn our back on sound and established science. HB1184 and HB1364: Please vote NO. However good the intentions behind them, abortion bans -- as we've seen in a tide of horror stories from across the country -- do more harm than good. They prevent people who very much want to keep their children from receiving life-saving medical care. Passing these laws will hurt and kill people -- real, actual, living, breathing, taxpaying people, as opposed to the hypothetical unborn. These decisions are best left between pregnant people and their doctors.

The only interest you should have in the menstrual cycle of any female is making tampons and pads free. If you want babies born in Virginia, ratify they ERA, provide maternal and paternal leave, free child care and affordable housing. Keep your laws off of our bodies unless they are too muddy us up. If you pass this Bill, the next Bill you pass better be a law making erectile dysfunction drugs illegal.

HB78 AND HB 1359 Courts of Justice Sub-Committe Criminal-1/24/24. the Alliance for a Progressive Virginia support these similar bills. APV supports a woman's right to control her reproductive health and this includes the right to keep her menstrual history private. In the wake of the Dobbs ruling, woman across the country and here in Virginia are suddenly at danger of having her personal and private health information used against her by a newly empowered, anti-choice police apparatus.

As a healthcare professional , I am shocked and dismayed that a bill allowing search warrants of menstrual history and data is even under consideration! Aside from the constitutional right to privacy , such legislation would be a gross violation of HIPPA, “ The Health Information Portability and Protection Act”, that caregivers are bound by law to protect on behalf of everyone,… everyone! Eileen Davis, RN

HB78 AND HB 1359 Courts of Justice Sub-Committe Criminal-1/24/24 The League of Women Voters of Virginia support these similar bills. A person’s menstrual cycle should never be made public. If a woman is having a health problem, then she and her health care professional should discuss this in private. This is an egregious violation of privacy and government intervention into our private lives. Protecting the privacy of this information is urgently needed–the information stored by digital health apps can be used in court as documentation that a birthing person has terminated a pregnancy. I urge you to support these bills.

YES keep menstrual health data out of search and seizure protect reproductive justice

YES protect private menstrual health data

I strongly support HB78 and urge you to pass it. Menstrual data should be private, and seems wildly irrelevant to any reasonable law enforcement investigation. I'm also horrified by stories of other states using warrants for menstrual data to track and control what people do with their own bodies, to protect their own health. Please enact these important protections for Virginians (and please consider a broader ban on using or selling this and other medical data of, to, or by private organizations).

HB78 and HB1359: Please vote YES. We are a free state, not a police state. Law enforcement has no need for private menstrual health data; it has no bearing or use in criminal investigations. Please prevent it from being used to control people and make them afraid. HB1539 and HB1493: Please vote YES. Doctors should be free to practice safe, proven medical care that is legal in Virginia without fear of extradition. We don't have to be complicit in other states' cruelty and ignorance, nor turn our back on sound and established science. HB1184 and HB1364: Please vote NO. However good the intentions behind them, abortion bans -- as we've seen in a tide of horror stories from across the country -- do more harm than good. They prevent people who very much want to keep their children from receiving life-saving medical care. Passing these laws will hurt and kill people -- real, actual, living, breathing, taxpaying people, as opposed to the hypothetical unborn. These decisions are best left between pregnant people and their doctors.

It's sad that we even need such a bill, but YES, I support making abortion based on sex or ethnicity of an unborn child illegal.

HB78 and HB1359: Please vote YES. We are a free state, not a police state. Law enforcement has no need for private menstrual health data; it has no bearing or use in criminal investigations. Please prevent it from being used to control people and make them afraid. HB1539 and HB1493: Please vote YES. Doctors should be free to practice safe, proven medical care that is legal in Virginia without fear of extradition. We don't have to be complicit in other states' cruelty and ignorance, nor turn our back on sound and established science. HB1184 and HB1364: Please vote NO. However good the intentions behind them, abortion bans -- as we've seen in a tide of horror stories from across the country -- do more harm than good. They prevent people who very much want to keep their children from receiving life-saving medical care. Passing these laws will hurt and kill people -- real, actual, living, breathing, taxpaying people, as opposed to the hypothetical unborn. These decisions are best left between pregnant people and their doctors.

HB78 AND HB 1359 Courts of Justice Sub-Committe Criminal-1/24/24. the Alliance for a Progressive Virginia support these similar bills. APV supports a woman's right to control her reproductive health and this includes the right to keep her menstrual history private. In the wake of the Dobbs ruling, woman across the country and here in Virginia are suddenly at danger of having her personal and private health information used against her by a newly empowered, anti-choice police apparatus.

As a citizen concerned about privacy and safety, I would recommend that the text be further amended to specifically exclude health data by name, including body temperature, mucosal viscosity, dates of menstruation, hormone levels and other similar health data, to ensure that these cannot be used to determine menstrual status by proxy.

HB78 AND HB 1359 Courts of Justice Sub-Committe Criminal-1/24/24 The League of Women Voters of Virginia support these similar bills. A person’s menstrual cycle should never be made public. If a woman is having a health problem, then she and her health care professional should discuss this in private. This is an egregious violation of privacy and government intervention into our private lives. Protecting the privacy of this information is urgently needed–the information stored by digital health apps can be used in court as documentation that a birthing person has terminated a pregnancy. I urge you to support these bills.

YES keep menstrual health data out of search and seizure protect reproductive justice

YES protect private menstrual health data

See PDF Attachment

As a mother of six, including a set of 29 week twins (one with special needs), I support this bill.

Please support all pre-born Virginians and stop the abuse of women in crisis situations for the financial gain of the abortion industry. I saw our children's heartbeats long before weeks and experience the loss of two spontaneous abortions. As long as we encourage abortion, we are encouraging men to not take responsibility for their sperm and ultimately we are harming women and killing Virginians. It is 2024 and we can see inside of the womb better than in the 1970s. Dr. Bernard Nathanson was responsible for 75,000 abortions and once he saw the expression on the baby, he was awakened to the reality of what was going on. During the Holocaust, as the trains with Jewish people on them went by, they sung their hymns louder to cover the cries on those trains. Do we want to be like that in Virginia? Thank you for your consideration of these thoughts. Respectfully submitted, Rebecca Shepard

Dear Delegates of the Courts of Justice Subcommittee, I write to ask you to vote in support of HB1364 being sent to the appropriations committee and eventually to be codified into law. Please allow me to share three of many reasons why I support the passing of HB1364, codifying the protection of the vulnerable among us by restricting abortions. As a licensed foster mom in Virginia for 6 years, also having recently adopted two young girls from foster care, I have witnessed the healing that comes from valuing lives of children who can not be cared for by their biological parents. My daughters could have been aborted by their teenage birth mother, but she knew they had worth even though her mental health did not let her care for them. Having also birthed two children under very difficult medical conditions, I was bedridden for 11 months between the two pregnancies, even though none of our lives were at risk. I physically suffered significantly. Fifty percent of children are aborted by their mothers with the medical condition with which I was diagnosed. I valued the lives of my children, who were born whole and healthy, and I recovered fully. They could have been aborted under Virginia's current laws. And their communities and our family would have suffered a great loss if I had chosen to end their lives. I sacrificed months, but that is required of mothers, even beyond birth. They are incredible children, who also are serving their younger adopted siblings in their journey to feeling loved and accepted. My little sister has Down Syndrome. While advised by her doctor to consider abortion, my mom recognized my sister's right to life. Now she is beloved and needed deeply by our large family. She's everyone's favorite. The practice of allowing people to kill their disabled or predicted to be disabled children, is a slippery slope devaluing some lives, which was used to justify the Nazi's extermination of people who looked like my little sister, Heather. Whoever would vote not to advance HB1364, is telling my 2 adopted little girls, my 2 biological children and my little sister, along with millions more, that the Commonwealth of Virginia does not value their lives enough to have protected them. Also, make no mistake, the teen suicide epidemic, paired with the illegal drug epidemic are directly correlated to how society's communicate to their children that life is valuable above all else and should be protected by those elected to do so. A vote no, is also a vote in favor of spiking suicide and drug overdose rates. And to the contrary, thank you to Delegate Griffin, and all the delegates that are willing to look at these 5 people and declare that their lives are and others like them are valuable enough, to be protected by the Delegates in the Commonwealth of Virginia from the moment of creation throughout their full lives. Thank you for your consideration.

HB78 and HB1359: Please vote YES. We are a free state, not a police state. Law enforcement has no need for private menstrual health data; it has no bearing or use in criminal investigations. Please prevent it from being used to control people and make them afraid. HB1539 and HB1493: Please vote YES. Doctors should be free to practice safe, proven medical care that is legal in Virginia without fear of extradition. We don't have to be complicit in other states' cruelty and ignorance, nor turn our back on sound and established science. HB1184 and HB1364: Please vote NO. However good the intentions behind them, abortion bans -- as we've seen in a tide of horror stories from across the country -- do more harm than good. They prevent people who very much want to keep their children from receiving life-saving medical care. Passing these laws will hurt and kill people -- real, actual, living, breathing, taxpaying people, as opposed to the hypothetical unborn. These decisions are best left between pregnant people and their doctors.

Hb1364 Vote no: women should have bodily autonomy

The Virginia League of Women Voters supports HB1493 and HB1539. There are multiple reasons why a person might seek reproductive health care outside their home state. Legality and accessibility are compelling ones. The right to reproductive health care is a basic human right that is legal in Virginia. As we know, several states have taken away or severely restricted those rights, forcing individuals to seek needed reproductive health care elsewhere. We do not believe that our governor should prosecute individuals who choose to use the health care services that are available to, and utilized by, our fellow Commonwealth residents nor should we prosecute the health care professionals who provide services that are legal in Virginia. Safeguards need to be in place to protect individuals who receive legal reproductive healthcare services in Virginia. These bill enshrine such protections. In addition, HB1539 protects the right to privacy for reproductive health information. We urge you to vote YES on HB1493 and HB1539.

HB78 and HB1359: Please vote YES. We are a free state, not a police state. Law enforcement has no need for private menstrual health data; it has no bearing or use in criminal investigations. Please prevent it from being used to control people and make them afraid. HB1539 and HB1493: Please vote YES. Doctors should be free to practice safe, proven medical care that is legal in Virginia without fear of extradition. We don't have to be complicit in other states' cruelty and ignorance, nor turn our back on sound and established science. HB1184 and HB1364: Please vote NO. However good the intentions behind them, abortion bans -- as we've seen in a tide of horror stories from across the country -- do more harm than good. They prevent people who very much want to keep their children from receiving life-saving medical care. Passing these laws will hurt and kill people -- real, actual, living, breathing, taxpaying people, as opposed to the hypothetical unborn. These decisions are best left between pregnant people and their doctors.

The Virginia League of Women Voters supports HB1493 and HB1539. There are multiple reasons why a person might seek reproductive health care outside their home state. Legality and accessibility are compelling ones. The right to reproductive health care is a basic human right that is legal in Virginia. As we know, several states have taken away or severely restricted those rights, forcing individuals to seek needed reproductive health care elsewhere. We do not believe that our governor should prosecute individuals who choose to use the health care services that are available to, and utilized by, our fellow Commonwealth residents nor should we prosecute the health care professionals who provide services that are legal in Virginia. Safeguards need to be in place to protect individuals who receive legal reproductive healthcare services in Virginia. These bill enshrine such protections. In addition, HB1539 protects the right to privacy for reproductive health information. We urge you to vote YES on HB1493 and HB1539.

HB78 and HB1359: Please vote YES. We are a free state, not a police state. Law enforcement has no need for private menstrual health data; it has no bearing or use in criminal investigations. Please prevent it from being used to control people and make them afraid. HB1539 and HB1493: Please vote YES. Doctors should be free to practice safe, proven medical care that is legal in Virginia without fear of extradition. We don't have to be complicit in other states' cruelty and ignorance, nor turn our back on sound and established science. HB1184 and HB1364: Please vote NO. However good the intentions behind them, abortion bans -- as we've seen in a tide of horror stories from across the country -- do more harm than good. They prevent people who very much want to keep their children from receiving life-saving medical care. Passing these laws will hurt and kill people -- real, actual, living, breathing, taxpaying people, as opposed to the hypothetical unborn. These decisions are best left between pregnant people and their doctors.