New reporting exposed Sears’ handwritten note that she’s “morally opposed” to protecting reproductive freedom

VIRGINIA - Reporting from the Virginia Independent details how Winsome Earle-Sears is “morally opposed” to protecting reproductive freedom including contraception, abortion, and IVF after Sears left a handwritten note on a constitutional amendment. This follows Sears casting the tie-breaking vote against a bill that would guarantee Virginia women access to contraception and birth control. 

The Virginia Independent: Winsome Earle-Sears opposes the legal protection of access to contraception and IVF

• Virginia Republican Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears has repeatedly opposed legislation that would protect reproductive rights, including access to in vitro fertilization and contraception.
• Earle-Sears did not respond to a request for comment for this story.
• Her Democratic opponent, former U.S. Rep. Abigail Spanberger, said in a May 2 press statement: “I believe in Virginians’ fundamental right to privacy — and I know we must make sure that right is protected for future generations. Virginians can feel confident that when I am Governor, I will sign the Right to Contraception Act into law — and I will always defend their reproductive freedoms.”
• On May 8, the online news site Virginia Mercury reported that Earle-Sears had put down in writing her opposition to a proposed constitutional amendment to enshrine in Virginia’s Bill of Rights [...]
• After the Legislature took the first step toward approving the proposal in February, Earle-Sears, while signing it as president of the Senate, hand wrote on the enrolled resolution, “I am morally opposed to this bill: no protection for the child.”
• On the May 7 Democratic Party call, Del. Destiny LeVere Bolling, a co-patron of the contraception bill and the reproductive rights amendment, criticized the lieutenant governor’s vote against the contraception bill: “Sears’ vote and her dangerous record on the issue is just a reminder that contraception would just be the start for her. Sears has even said she is ‘standing shoulder to shoulder’ in the fight against IVF, whereas I wouldn’t have been able to have my daughter during [the 2025 legislative] session without it.”
• Sarah Goodman of Roanoke, the mother of 19- and 23-year-old sons, said contraception may have saved her life: “I am very aware of the fact that, had I not had access to contraception after they were born, I might not have been around to raise them. My pregnancies were both very difficult, both ended in emergency cesarean sections. And my last C-section was very traumatic for everyone in that operating room. When my doctor came to check on me later, she said, ‘Sarah, 100 years ago you would have been one of those women who died in childbirth, and I cannot recommend that you undertake the risk of another pregnancy.’”
• Goodman added. “Now Sears is saying that guaranteed access to birth control is ‘pushing a political agenda.’ As a woman who medically needs contraception, I can tell you it’s not.”
• Asked by WRIC-TV in Richmond whether a woman’s access to abortion in Virginia is on the ballot in this November’s election, Spanberger said on May 8: “It is, because my opponent has made clear that she would put further restrictions on a woman’s access to reproductive health care, and in fact, she’s voted to not actually guarantee right to contraception. [...]”