CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) — Congressional candidate Tom Perriello urged incumbent 5th District Representative John McGuire to support bringing the Right to Contraception Act to a floor vote.

“He’s supposed to be a pro-freedom guy,” Perriello said after an Americans for Contraception and Planned Parenthood Advocates of Virginia media event Tuesday at the Central Library in Charlottesville. “But he’s been attacking our freedoms at every point in the bills that he’s been proposing and he’s been attacking people’s ability to afford to raise a family in this district as we see maternal health deserts expand across southside Virginia.”

“So, if he’s not worried about it, sign the petition and let’s get back to trying to make healthcare access meaningful and affordable to people.”

During the event, Perriello, the last Democrat to represent the 5th District, urged McGuire, a first-term Republican, to sign a discharge petition drafted by Rep. Lizzie Fletcher (D, Texas) on June 9. The petition would force a floor vote on vote on her bill, the Right to Contraception Act, which would guarantee the right to contraception on the federal level.

Perriello spoke during the press conference alongside Del. Katrina Callsen (D, Charlottesville) and Executive Director of Planned Parenthood Advocates of Virginia Jamie Lockhart, among others.

It was the fourth in a series of press events being held in the buildup to the Virginia Right to Contraception Act’s effective date of July 1.

“I heard so many stories when we were working to pass our Virginia Right to Contraception Act,” Callsen said afterward. “I know how important this right is to people across not only our state, but the nation. So that’s why I’m here today to encourage them to do the same protections at the national level. We deserve it.”

During the conference, many speakers focused on the widespread appeal of the right to contraception. Virginia spokeswoman for Americans for Contraception Katie Baker said the organization’s polling on the issue back in 2022, it found bipartisan support. More recent data also support this, with a report from Navigator Research in 2024 finding 81% of Americans supported congress passing legislation to protect contraception access.

Nevada and Tennessee have also passed laws protecting the right to contraception, the latter Baker pointed to as an example of the issue’s bipartisan support.

This comes despite recent attacks, including the federal blocking of Planned Parenthood from using Medicaid which was passed in the Big Beautiful Bill last year. Lockhart said afterward the loss in funding led to 41% dropoff in IUDs for Medicaid Patients nationally. state contraception plan in Virginia has prevented that dropoff in the Commonwealth, but Lockhart said they are closely watching the state budget negotiations to make sure the program remains funding.

This defunding has impacted the number of patients coming in not just for contraception but also cancer screenings as well as STI and HPV testing.

Lockhart said while some Medicaid patients have continued to pay for these services out of pocket, the hope is the defunding of Planned Parenthood will expire of July 4. Still, the damage has been done, with over 20 clinics closing across the country.

“That’s why it’s so important that we make sure that Medicaid patients have the ability to use their health insurance at Planned Parenthood,” she said, “and that there’s not another federal defunding of Planned Parenthood.”

Lockhart said while it’s critically important to protect the right to contraception, protecting expanding access is also crucial.

“We need to pair both having the right to access to the ability to access financially,” she said. “So that’s why the state contraception access initiative is so important.”