Virginia's Most Conservative City Births Plan to Thwart Abortion Tourism
Planned Parenthood boasted earlier this year that "Virginia is the last state in the South without an extreme abortion ban."
That's a campaign consultant's way of twisting the truth: the Old Dominion has the most liberal abortion laws south of the Potomac. With Democrats soon to take charge of the state government, things will only trend further left in 2026.
Virginia Democrats have already announced their goal of codifying the "right to reproductive freedom" in the state constitution—an amendment Gov.-Elect Abigail Spanberger (D) endorsed for the November 2026 ballot. Experts believe it will pave the way for California-style third-trimester abortions, transforming Virginia into a hotspot for "abortion tourism" from nearby red states.
Yet conservatives in Lynchburg—the only major city in the commonwealth that voted Republican in 2025—are showing how pro-lifers can fight back through their local government. Their tool of choice: Zoning laws cleverly crafted to limit where and how many abortion clinics may operate inside city limits.
All (Abortion) Politics is Local
Under current city ordinances, abortion clinics are allowed "by right" to open and operate in virtually any business district in Lynchburg. That's largely true in any locality using templates provided by the American Planning Association (APA), which treat abortion clinics like most other medical facilities (specifically LCBS Code 6512 governing "family planning and outpatient care centers").
But a proposal by Councilmember Marty Misjuns would require abortion clinics to obtain a special use permit from the city council—granted on a case-by-case basis—before opening. That modest change, Misjuns told Restoration News, would shift control from bureaucrats to elected representatives accountable to voters.
"Democrats are trying to create an abortion tourism industry," Misjuns explained. "They want to open abortion clinics here in Virginia so they can import people from West Virginia or Tennessee, where it's illegal to murder the unborn, then send them home. I don't want that driving our economy."
Misjuns' proposal would further limit abortion clinics from operating within 1,000 feet of sensitive areas such as residential districts, public parks, schools, children's museums, daycare centers, and hotels—an especially important measure to combat the rising number of abortion "tourists" traveling to terminate their pregnancies.
He expects the measure to receive the usual criticism from pro-abortion extremists. But Misjuns points to other jurisdictions that have (rightly) used zoning laws to control overdevelopment by data centers, which is fast becoming one of the commonwealth's most controversial issues.
The board of supervisors in neighboring Campbell County, for instance, voted 5-2 on Dec. 3 to require a developer to obtain a special use permit before opening a local data center. Previously, a developer could open a data center "by right" on any land zoned for heavy industry.
The proposal, first submitted on Oct. 14, is currently under review by the Lynchburg planning commission after the city council approved the measure 7-0. If passed, it would go into effect sometime next year.
Restoring Real Oversight
Misjuns' advice to fellow conservative officials: Carefully define "abortion clinic." Current APA guidelines in use throughout Virginia do not distinguish abortion clinics from many other types of medical facilities, such as hospitals or dental clinics. His ordinance would define them as facilities where procedures with "intent to knowingly destroy the life of an embryo or fetus" are performed.
That's crucial given Democrats' long-running efforts to dismantle abortion oversight statewide. In 2020, when they last controlled the General Assembly and governor's mansion, Democrats nixed ultrasound and consent requirements, dropped waiting periods, and expanded the categories of health professionals and facilities that can perform abortions. They also lifted a prohibition on state exchange insurance coverage for abortion.
In 2024, Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin vetoed a Democrat "shield law" to help abortionists who facilitate illegal abortions in other states evade justice. Such laws already exist in California and New York, and there's nothing stopping Virginia from joining their ranks in 2026.
If that happens, Virginia will be yet another haven for those aiding and abetting abortion crimes in pro-life states like Texas and Louisiana, where all efforts to prosecute have been thwarted by blue states' shield laws.
Whether those laws will stand up in court remains unclear. In November, a trial court ruled against Texas in a battle to determine whether New York must recognize its legal judgments against New York-based abortionists, upholding the state's shield law.
In July, 16 state attorneys general urged Congress to take action against shield laws, calling them "blatant attempts to interfere with States' ability to enforce criminal laws within their borders and disrupt our constitutional structure." The conservative Heritage Foundation similarly argues the laws violate the Constitution's Full Faith and Credit clause requiring states cooperate with one another to extradite criminals who flee across state lines.
But don't expect Democrats to cut short their abortion tourism plans short of a Supreme Court ruling that may or may not be forthcoming. And until then, Virginia seems bent on joining the ranks of far-left states that bow before Moloch.
Hayden Ludwig is Founder and Managing Editor of Restoration News, launched in 2023, and Executive Director for Research at Restoration of America. He specializes in election integrity and dark money, authoring the first investigations into the 2020 election "Zuck Bucks" scandal and unearthing the world's largest dark money network run by Arabella Advisors. He publishes regularly at RealClearPolitics, American Greatness, and the American Conservative.
Republished with permission from Restoration News
