The crowd cheers for Virginia Democrat Abigail Spanberger at her election night party in Richmond on November 4, 2025. She won her race for governor with New Jersey’s Mikie Sherrill, and both campaigned on protecting reproductive rights. (Photo by Charlotte Renee Woods/Virginia Mercury)
Although there is less focus on abortion in the 2025 election, voters on Tuesday backed Democratic candidates who support reproductive rights in New Jersey and Virginia and appointed Democratic judges in Pennsylvania who will hear abortion-related cases.
Virginia voters made history Tuesday by voting for former U.S. Rep. Abigail Spanberger, a Democrat who is expected to become the commonwealth’s first female governor. With 57% of the vote, she defeated Republican Lieutenant Governor Winsome Earle-Sears – the first black woman in the country to lead a Republican gubernatorial race.
“It’s a big deal that the girls and young women I met on the campaign trail now know for certain that they can achieve anything,” Spanberger said during her speech Victory speech.
On the campaign trail, she promised to support Virginia’s protection of reproductive rights. Virginia law allows abortions in the first and second trimesters. Earle-Sears said she would sign one Ban on abortion after 15 weeks or earlier if elected, enter into law and that they “morally against it” on a possible change in abortion law.
The Democrats won the statewide electionswon all executive branch races and won more than a dozen seats in the House of Representatives, Virginia Mercury reported.
A surge in the Democratic majority in the General Assembly all but solidifies that Virginia voters could make a choice Changing Reproductive Freedom be included in the state constitution next year. The legislature already does approved a resolution in February, this would secure the right to abortion, fertility treatments, contraception and similar reproductive health care. However, state law requires such proposals to be reviewed twice in consecutive legislative sessions before being presented to voters.
If the measure comes to the ballot in November 2026 and voters approve the change, Virginia would be the first state in the Southeast to strengthen reproductive rights since the U.S. Supreme Court struck down abortion rights nationwide in June 2022. Virginia is the only state in the region that has not restricted access following the landmark Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision.
Spanberger’s former Housemates in Congress also made history in New Jersey this week.
Democratic U.S. Rep. Mikie Sherrill won her race for governor against Republican Jack Ciattarelli, receiving at least 56% of the vote. New Jersey Monitor reported.
Sherrill will be the Garden State’s first Democratic governor, and her victory is the first in more than 60 years since either party won the office three times in a row.
“Governors have never been more important,” she said Tuesday night. “In this state, I am committed to creating prosperity for all of our citizens.”
The race centered on cost-of-living issues, polls showed Abortion was not a top issue for voters. But reproductive rights advocates backed Sherrill, who supports abortion protections in New Jersey. Outgoing Governor Phil Murphy signed legislation to do so in 2023 secured the rightand it is one of the few states where there are no pregnancy restrictions on abortions.
Advocates in New Jersey feared that a Ciattarelli victory could restrict access. He signaled he would sign a 20-week abortion ban and a law requiring parental notification for minors seeking an abortion, and he promised to redirect government funding from Planned Parenthood to anti-abortion centers monitor reported.
In Pennsylvania there are supporters and opponents of abortion rights Millions poured in ads and mailings for the state’s judicial races and emphasized the importance of the state’s supreme courts in litigation over post-Roe abortion laws.
Voters confirmed Justices Christine Donohue, Kevin Dougherty and David Wecht this week, maintaining Democrats’ 5-2 majority on the court. Pennsylvania Capital Star reported.
A case over the constitutionality of a ban on using state Medicaid funds to cover abortions is expected to end up back before the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. A majority of justices allowed the lawsuit to continue last year sent the lawsuit back to the lower courts.
Donohue said she suspects the ban likely violates Pennsylvania’s Equal Rights Amendment. “The right to make health care decisions related to reproduction is a core important right covered by the interest in privacy protected in our Charter,” she said wrote in a leading opinion with which Dougherty partially agreed and Wecht joined.
And while affordability was the key issue in the New York mayoral race that saw Zohran Mamdani emerge victorious, several reproductive rights groups supported the Democratic Socialist Party lawmaker.
Last year he supported adding one Equal rights change to the state constitution, which prohibits discrimination, including in choosing reproductive health care and pregnancy outcomes.
“Access to sexual and reproductive health care should be guaranteed to New Yorkers – regardless of who is in office,” Mamdani wrote in an October 2024 opinion article for Queen’s Daily Eagle. More than 60% of voters approved the change the following month.
As part of the mayoral campaign, Mamdani also promised to introduce universal child care in the most populous city in the United States. He and New York Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul agree that lawmakers should address it the child care crisis. But Mamdani needs approval from Hochul and the legislature to fund his initiative. New York focus reported.
“Given the devastating federal budget proposals, attacks on Medicaid, and coordinated efforts to eliminate access to abortion and gender-affirming care, strong local and state leadership has never been more important.” said Planned Parenthood of Greater New York CEO Wendy Stark chooses PAC this summer. “We know that as mayor, Zohran will fight to ensure that sexual and reproductive health care providers have the resources and support they need to serve their communities.”
This story was originally produced by News from the Stateswhich is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network that includes West Virginia Watch, and is a 501c(3) public charity supported by grants and a coalition of donors.
