Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares urged the U.S. Supreme Court in a letter on Friday to overrule the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision and hand the issue back to states.
Under previous Democratic state Attorney General Mark Herring, Virginia joined 21 states in calling for the court to reaffirm the nearly 50-year precedent in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization case regarding abortion restrictions in Mississippi, according to The Hill.
“The Attorney General has reconsidered Virginia’s position in this case,” Miyares said in the letter. “Virginia is now of the view that the Constitution is silent on the question of abortion, and that it is therefore up to the people in the several states to determine the legal status and regulatory treatment of abortion.”
“It is Virginia’s position that the court’s decisions in Roe and Casey were wrongly decided,” he added. “This court should restore judicial neutrality to the abortion debate by permitting the people of the several states to resolve these questions for themselves.”
On Thursday, Republican lawmaker Nick Freitas introduced the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act in the Virginia House of Delegates. The bill would ban abortion after 20 weeks in the state, 8News WRIC Richmond reported.
Experts say the moves foreshadow a shifting landscape over abortion in Virginia after the November 2021 election saw Republicans win all statewide offices and take control of the House of Delegates.
“I think that the new 20-week bill is the most likely vehicle now,” Carl Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond, told The Hill. “However, stricter measures could still be introduced and possibly passed.”
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