Amanda Batten’s Record Against Reproductive Freedom

Batten voted against protecting the right to birth control

2025: Batten voted against HB 1716, which would establish a right to obtain contraceptives. [LIS Virginia, HB 1716, 1/23/25] 

 

Batten wants to ban abortion

2023: Batten supported Gov. Youngkin’s abortion ban. During her last campaign, Batten said she believed the abortion ban proposed by Gov. Glenn Youngkin was a “great place to start.”  [The 19th, 7/15/25] 

2021: Batten signed onto a brief led by the anti-abortion group SBA Pro-Life America supporting the overturning of Roe v. Wade. [The 19th, 7/15/25] [BRIEF FOR WOMEN LEGISLATORS AND THE SUSAN B. ANTHONY LIST AS AMICI CURIAE SUPPORTING PETITIONERS, 7/29/21] 

2019: Batten called herself “unabashedly pro-life.” She said on Facebook, “Who will be joining me Wednesday in Richmond as we March for Life? I’m unabashedly pro-life, and I look forward to spending Wednesday with thousands of like-minded Virginians!” [Facebook, 3/30/19] 

 

Batten signed a pledge with an anti-abortion group that supports a complete abortion ban without exceptions for rape, incest or life of the mother

2021: Batten pledged to 100% support pro-life policy with Students for Life of America. In a press release, Students for Life said, “Students for Life Action Congratulates the following lawmakers soon to be getting to work in the Commonwealth, all of whom pledged to 100 percent support pro-life policy, including: Amanda Batten.” “In this election cycle, SFLAction engaged in 34 House of Delegate races where candidates pledged to vote 100% pro-life, with some races receiving special attention. Since the beginning of the year, we’ve been exposing the extreme abortion agenda of the pro-abortion trifecta in Virginia. We shared the pro-life message through door knocking, text messages, phone calls, and five-figure TV advertisement.” [SFLA, 11/3/21] 

2021: Students for Life of America’s pledge says: “All preborn children must be protected from the violence of abortion regardless of how they came to be, if they are considered viable, or whether they are proven to feel pain.” The pledge states, “I PLEDGE: 

• My commitment to making abortion unthinkable and unavailable, with the full knowledge that the abortion industry will simply encourage earlier and earlier abortions until we make abortion illegal from the moment a human being begins to exist.
• To seek equal justice for the preborn, regardless of their stage of gestation or any other external factor.
• To urge my legislators at every opportunity, and at all levels of government, to protect life at conception in law.
• That my end goal is complete abortion abolition, consistent with my belief that preborn humans are equal to born humans from the moment of conception.
• I will not be satisfied with only incremental measures, though I will not oppose any law that will save preborn lives.
• That my work as a pro-life advocate is not done now that Roe v. Wade is reversed, as Roe’s reversal merely initiated 50 individual state battles over abortion.
• To challenge my legislators to dream big, beyond 15-week abortion bans. I will encourage them to seek the strongest pro-life legislation it's possible to pass in my state.” [Wayback Machine, SFLA Pledge, accessed 9/23/25] 

 

Batten wants to criminalize abortion providers

2023–2024: The Virginia General Assembly passed abortion shield bills designed to protect Virginia providers from being criminalized or targeted by out-of-state politicians for offering abortion care that is legal in Virginia. These bills would have ensured that Virginia health care providers could not be extradited, sued, or prosecuted for providing abortion to patients traveling from states with bans. Governor Youngkin vetoed these commonsense protections. [VPM, 4/6/24] [LIS Virginia, HB519 3/9/24]

Amanda Batten opposed these efforts to safeguard providers and patients. By rejecting shield protections, Batten aligned herself with an extreme agenda that would leave Virginia doctors vulnerable to prosecution simply for delivering standard reproductive health care. This approach threatens not only providers, but also the thousands of patients from across the South who travel to Virginia to access care.

 

Batten voted against protecting abortion access

2025: Batten voted against HJ1, which would protect access to prenatal care, childbirth, postpartum care, contraception, abortion care, miscarriage management, and fertility care. [LIS Virginia, HJ 1, 1/14/25] 

2020: Batten voted against HB980, which eliminated unnecessary restrictions to get an abortion. The bill got rid of biased counseling, a medically unnecessary ultrasound, targeted restrictions on facilities that perform abortions and restrictions on which qualified providers could provide first trimester abortions. [LIS, HB 980, 1/28/20]

 

Batten voted to add restrictions to abortion access 

2022: Batten voted to require biased, state-mandated counseling before a patient can access abortion care, interfering with the provider-patient relationship. [LIS Virginia, HB 212, 2/15/22] 

 

Abortion restrictions are dangerous

Leading experts confirm the harms of restrictions:

2025: “The right is waging a quiet war on contraception” [Guttmacher Institute, 9/25] 

2024: “USA: Abortion bans and restrictions cause extensive harm, violate human rights” [Amnesty International, 8/5/24] 

2024: “Clear and Growing Evidence That Dobbs Is Harming Reproductive Health and Freedom” [Guttmacher Institute, 5/24] 

2022: “The U.S. Maternal Health Divide: The Limited Maternal Health Services and Worse Outcomes of States Proposing New Abortion Restrictions” [Common Wealth Fund, 12/14/22] 

2021: “The negative health implications of restricting abortion access.” [Harvard School of Public Health, 12/13/21] 

 

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Bottom line: Amanda Batten has voted against reproductive freedom at every turn, supported extreme abortion bans, and pledged to abolish abortion entirely—with no exceptions. That’s why Planned Parenthood Advocates of Virginia has endorsed Jessica Anderson for the House of Delegates in District 71.