After comparing it to ‘slavery’ and ‘genocide,’ Earle-Sears now downplays opposition to abortion

The Republican nominee for Virginia governor has a long history of taking extreme positions on abortion. The majority of Virginians support access to the procedure.

As Lieutenant Governor Winsome Earle-Sears campaigns to become Virginia’s first woman governor, she does so with a long record of opposing reproductive rights at a time when many voters are rallying to defend abortion access. 

Earle-Sears earlier this year took the unusual step of leaving a handwritten note on legislation advancing a state constitutional amendment to protect reproductive rights that read: “I am morally opposed to this bill; no protection for the child.” The Virginia Mercury’s Charlotte Rene Woods first reported on Earle-Sears’ note.

The move surprised some, who considered it an unforced error for a conservative already facing an uphill climb in an off-year election that historically favors the party not in the White House. While Earle-Sears’ opponent, Democrat and former congresswoman Abigail Spanberger, has largely campaigned on making Virginia a more affordable place to live, the state Democratic Party has been working to remind voters of Earle-Sears’ longstanding opposition to abortion. 

While running for lieutenant governor in 2021, Earle-Sears said she would support a six-week abortion ban similar to what Texas adopted, and told The Winchester Star that she considers abortion “genocide.” In 2022, when Gov. Glenn Youngkin tried –and ultimately failed – to establish a 15-week abortion ban in Virginia, Earle-Sears said she supported it. 

Earle-Sears, who is Black, also reportedly called abortion “another form of slavery” and claimed that abortion providers sell baby parts. She further suggested that abortion clinics specifically target Black and Hispanic neighborhoods. 

“The KKK could not be happier about so many Black women not having their babies,” Earle-Sears told her now running mate John Reid on his radio show in 2022.

More recently, Earle-Sears has tried to distance herself from the issue and has made herself far less available to the press than Spanberger. When Tyler Englander of 8News asked Earle-Sears about her support for limiting access to abortion in May, she cut in to say, “I never said limiting access. I don’t think anybody would be surprised that I’m pro-life.” 

Earle-Sears ultimately declined to tell Englander where she currently stood on abortion and did not respond to a request for comment on this story.

Reproductive rights have broad support in Virginia, with 71% of Virginians saying that abortion should be legal in all or most cases, according to a 2023 Public Religion Research Institute survey. Currently, abortion is legal in Virginia and it’s the only state in the south without a strict abortion ban, making it a haven for many in the region seeking care they can’t get at home.

“I imagine her campaign team is trying to make sure she doesn’t talk about it, because they know that she is so at odds with what Virginians believe on reproductive health care,” said Jamie Lockhart, executive director of Planned Parenthood Advocates of Virginia. 

While Earle-Sears may be avoiding talking about her stance on abortion now, she has left plenty on the record about her views in the years leading up to her attempt to become governor.  

She celebrated the US Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe v. Wade, stripping women of their constitutional right to abortion care. 

“I applaud the Court for recognizing this wrong and having the courage to correct it,” she said in a statement at the time. The consequences of that decision have been dire. Abortion is completely banned in 12 states. Four other states have bans on abortion after six weeks of pregnancy, and two have banned abortion after 12 weeks of pregnancy.

“It’s definitely critical for Virginians, but also people in our bordering states and further into the South that Virginia holds the line on keeping abortion legal and accessible,” said Tarina Keene, the executive director of REPRO Rising Virginia.

If Earle-Sears had her way and Virginia had implemented a six-week or 15-week abortion ban, it likely would have been a death sentence for Manassas resident Jenny Higginbotham.

Higginbotham needed an abortion in Richmond three decades ago when at 21 weeks pregnant, she learned her baby’s chest cavity and abdomen were filled with fluid. Her doctor later told her gangrene had set in on the baby’s limbs.

“I probably would not have survived if I tried to carry that pregnancy,” said Higginbotham, who also had a young daughter at the time. “I would have had a daughter with no mother.”

She told Dogwood protecting reproductive rights is a top issue for her and that abortion decisions should not be up to politicians but rather the people involved who need the care.  

“That’s why I can support Abigail Spanberger because I know she cares about that,” Higginbotham said. “And I know that’s important to her as well – that women retain their rights and Winsome Earle-Sears does not.”