When Lynchburg City Council members discuss a proposed zoning amendment Tuesday, they’ll join a list of elected officials across Virginia who are testing land-use laws as a tool to take local control over the state and national abortion debate.
The changes, proposed by Councilmember Marty Misjuns, would introduce a new definition for abortion clinics that would separate them from other medical facilities. Under the new definition, abortion clinics would no longer be permitted anywhere by right, but could qualify for conditional-use permits in two zoning districts as long as extensive land-use standards are met.
Misjuns said other Virginia localities that have passed abortion-related ordinances, specifically Washington County, gave him the legal foundation he needed to build his proposal. All he has to do is trek down a trail that’s already been blazed, he said.
“Not only did [Washington’s ordinance] pass, but nobody’s challenged it,” Misjuns said. “We’re not trying to do something that hasn’t been done or can’t be done. It can be done.”
The proposal in Lynchburg comes about two months after a Bedford County amendment placed a de facto ban on abortion services in that locality, by stating that an abortion clinic can’t qualify as a medical clinic and thus can’t fit into any zoning definition.
In June 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, ending the federal protection of abortion access and turning the fate of abortion services over to state governments. Since then, a number of Virginia localities have tested the power granted to them by the state government to pass various ordinances and resolutions to enshrine their anti-abortion stances in local law.
Meanwhile, Virginia is celebrated by abortion-rights advocates as a haven for reproductive rights in the South. Virginia is, in fact, the only Southern state without a restrictive post-Roe abortion ban, according to Planned Parenthood. Currently, 21 clinics offer in-person abortion services in the commonwealth.
And, Virginia is one step into a process that would establish a right to reproductive freedom in its state constitution, according to the ACLU of Virginia. In February, a resolution to amend the constitution to protect abortion rights passed through the General Assembly. The amendment will need to pass through the legislature again next year before appearing on the ballot for voters to approve in November 2026.
It’s a process that’s on voters’ minds this fall, as its future depends on whether Democrats can retain control in the state House of Delegates this year as all 100 seats go up for election.
Working against that backdrop, Bedford County Supervisor Charla Bansley said it’s more important than ever to leverage local laws — both to protect local beliefs and demonstrate that no one at the state capital or in national abortion-rights organizations can “tell rural America how we are to live.”
Bedford’s move is proactive, Bansley said, as there are no abortion clinics currently operating in the county and none planning to move in.
“I can’t do much to stop what’s going on in Richmond, but I can protect women and children in Bedford County. And zoning is all about that. It’s about guiding land use to reflect our values,” she said.
A proposal in Lynchburg
The Lynchburg City Council will review the proposed abortion-related zoning changes at a work session on Tuesday. The meeting will begin at 4 p.m. in the second-floor training room of city hall. The meeting will also be livestreamed on the city’s YouTube channel.
The changes would apply to abortion clinics as they relate to “the opening of such business as a new business, the relocation of such business, the enlargement of such business in either scope or area, or the conversion, in whole or in part, of an existing business to abortion clinic,” according to the agenda packet for Tuesday’s meeting.
No abortion clinics currently operate in Lynchburg, according to an online guide to verified abortion service providers. The Planned Parenthood Lynchburg location closed in 2009.
According to the agenda packet, Misjuns’ proposed zoning changes would add a definition for an abortion clinic, specifying it as “a facility, other than a hospital, where any person administers” any procedure with the “intent to knowingly destroy the life of an embryo or fetus.” The definitions for hospitals and medical clinics would subsequently be amended to exclude abortion clinics.
As the city’s zoning ordinance is written now, abortion clinics fall under the category of outpatient care clinics, which are permitted by right in six zoning districts — four business districts and two institutional districts.
Under the proposed changes, abortion clinics would be considered as a separate kind of clinic, and would no longer be permitted in any zoning district by right. Abortion clinics could be considered for conditional-use permits in the two institutional districts, meaning that they would need special approval from the city council before moving into the city.
Other kinds of buildings and facilities are evaluated with conditional-use permits in Lynchburg, so the strategy is nothing new, Misjuns said. The goal is to ensure that the city council — which currently has a six to one Republican majority — can have the final say on projects that may disrupt “community harmony.”
“Something this controversial, just as a shooting range would, should come before city council for a vote on final approval,” he said. “That’s one of the key elements with this. It puts it on us.”
Under the proposed changes, abortion clinics would face an additional set of land use standards along with the conditional-use permitting process. Those rules state that no abortion clinic could be established within 1,000 feet of eight kinds of zoned districts — including all four of the city’s types of residential districts — nor established within 1,000 feet of any place of worship, school, public park, and various other community hubs.
Misjuns said he has checked to make sure that there are available parcels where abortion clinics could operate under the new criteria. He said he’s aware of the legal challenges that could come with a de facto ban on abortion, and he wants to avoid those while still making sure land use is compatible with the layout of community resources.
“I am 100% undeniably pro-life. But we cannot prevent abortion clinics outright. It wouldn’t be legally defensible,” Misjuns said. “What we can do is we can prevent them from popping up across the street from schools.”
Councilmember Chris Faraldi said he believes that the proposed changes are not legally sound, whether or not they create a de facto ban. The proposal singles out one type of service within a wider group of medical establishments, he said, which makes the proposal “all about one political issue” instead of about evenly regulating land use for all outpatient clinics.
As a result, Misjuns’ “proposal doesn’t meet legal muster and will trip Dillon’s rule,” Faraldi wrote in a statement. Virginia is a Dillon Rule state, which means counties and cities only have powers explicitly granted to them by the commonwealth.
Misjuns said he was motivated to get the ball rolling on his proposal now due to recent developments in Northern Virginia. Last month, the U.S. Department of Education initiated an investigation against Fairfax County Public Schools after receiving reports that school personnel had connected students with abortion services without consent from the students’ parents.
City spokesperson Anna Bentson said that after Tuesday’s presentation and discussion, if there is direction from the city council to move forward with the zoning amendment, the proposed change would go to the planning commission. The planning commission would then hold a public hearing and vote to recommend or not recommend the proposal. The proposed changes would then go back to the city council for a public hearing and final vote before taking effect, she said.
Bentson did not respond to additional questions asked by Cardinal News, saying that city staff members are following the agenda process and waiting to see if the city council decides to move ahead with the zoning changes.
A proactive amendment in Bedford
Two months before Misjuns began drafting his plans, the Bedford County Board of Supervisors unanimously passed a zoning ordinance amendment to prohibit abortion services in the county.
Like other zoning amendment packages that are passed two or three times a year, this one brought together various proposals from county staff, residents and supervisors to ensure that the county’s land use protocols match community needs, said County Administrator Robert Hiss. The July 28 changes spanned more than 20 topics, ranging from adding a new definition for “tiny home” to establishing additional signage regulations for gasoline canopies.
Notably, the amendment added a line to the definitions of “medical office” and “clinic,” according to the meeting’s agenda: “This use does not include any procedure outlined in the Code of Virginia §18.2-71 through §18.2-76.1.”
The cited state code regulates abortion services in Virginia. Abortion is legal in Virginia, with some exceptions, including a requirement for parents to provide consent for a minor’s abortion and a ban on abortions in the third trimester unless three physicians attest to its necessity.
Bedford’s amendment doesn’t change where medical offices and clinics can operate — they still have the zoned right to be in various office, commercial and industrial districts and can qualify for special use in some agricultural districts, according to Bedford’s zoning ordinance. Instead, the amendment disqualifies abortion providers from the definition of medical office and clinic.
No current medical offices in Bedford will be affected by the change, Hiss said. It applies to any future clinic that wants to move in, or any current clinic that wants to expand its services to offer abortion. The amendment does not apply to the Centra Bedford Memorial Hospital, which is located in the town of Bedford and thus not under the county’s zoning jurisdiction, Hiss added.
Bansley, who led the movement to update the clinic definition, said her constituents have long been concerned about protecting the lives of the unborn. But conversations gained traction in summer 2024 when Bedford’s neighbor, the town of Vinton, couldn’t stop an abortion clinic from moving in.
At a June 2024 town council meeting, Vinton Mayor Brad Grose announced that an office building had been acquired by a women’s health care business that performs abortions among other services.
“I am not aware of anything that can be done by this council to stop this business from proceeding with its plans at this proposed location. Offices and medical clinics are permitted as a matter of right in this zoning district,” he said, according to a video recording of the June 18 meeting.
In September 2024, the Vinton Town Council passed an ordinance to require all future medical and dental clinics and hospitals to obtain a special-use permit, which gives city leaders the opportunity to evaluate what kind of services are offered by health care providers before they get the right to move to town. But it was too late to stop Summit Medical Center, which had already expanded its business from Atlanta and Detroit to Vinton.
Vinton’s situation sparked equal parts fear and motivation into Bansley, she said.
“[Vinton] had no way of stopping it. So we are acting. We acted with this zoning change proactively to make sure Bedford reflects our family centered values,” she said.
A pattern of local experiments
Mat Staver, founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel, said Bedford’s zoning amendment won’t be the last of its kind.
“Bedford County is in a good position to be able to lead Virginia and even be an example for the rest of the nation with regards to protecting the unborn,” he said.
Liberty Counsel is a Florida-based Christian ministry that uses litigation, education and advocacy efforts to advance “religious freedom, the sanctity of human life and the family,” according to its website. The organization has filed numerous legal briefs in abortion-related cases since it was founded in 1989; Staver first argued before the U.S. Supreme Court in 1994 to defend “sidewalk counselors,” or anti-abortion advocates who stand outside clinics to offer alternatives to abortion.
Staver said Bedford makes an ideal model because of its history. The county is home to the National D-Day Memorial, which pays tribute to the lives lost in the World War II invasion. The county suffered the nation’s highest known per-capita loss on D-Day, and the sacrifice makes its residents place a special value on life, he said.
Before Bedford and Vinton approved their zoning changes, other Virginia localities tested how local laws could be applied to prohibit abortion services.
The first, according to a post by the Family Foundation, was Russell County. In September 2022, the county’s board of supervisors passed a resolution to declare Russell County a pro-life county and directed the county attorney to pursue the possibility of an ordinance prohibiting abortion clinics. The resulting ordinance makes it a misdemeanor for an abortion clinic to locate or operate within the county — with daily fines of up to $1,000.
In October 2022, the Tazewell County Board of Supervisors approved a resolution making the county a “Sanctuary for the Rights of the Unborn.” Geri Greenspan, senior staff attorney at the ACLU of Virginia, said resolutions don’t carry legal weight but make a symbolic statement regarding a locality’s beliefs.
Also in late 2022, Bristol had initial support for an ordinance that said no land or structure in any zoning district could be used to “intentionally cause the death or termination of a pre-born human life.” The ordinance eventually stalled by early 2023 and was never passed.
In February 2023, Washington County supervisors approved an ordinance that placed significant restrictions on where abortion clinics can legally operate. The amendment stops abortion clinics from opening within 1,500 feet of a church, school, government facility, hotel, library, park or any area zoned for residential, industrial or agricultural uses.
The wording in Washington County’s amendment creates a “de facto ban on abortion clinics,” Greenspan said. Counties that tried to ban abortion services outright faced more opposition, she said.
Grayson County, for example, considered but did not pass an ordinance in December 2023 that would have made it a misdemeanor to send or receive any item or material used to perform an abortion. The ACLU of Virginia recommended that county officials decline the ordinance because it would be invalid under Virginia law and the U.S. Constitution.
A murky legal landscape
Since these local initiatives began in 2022, opponents have questioned whether localities have the authority to regulate abortion services.
Virginia is a Dillon Rule state, in which counties and cities only have powers explicitly granted to them by the commonwealth.
Supporters of local abortion regulations say that the state gave localities the right to govern land use, and that’s exactly what they’re doing.
“With this particular topic, there are very limited options on a local level,” Hiss said. “And I would say that zoning uses is one of the few levers that the Board of Supervisors had regarding this issue.”
Misjuns said he’s confident that Lynchburg would be safe from legal challenges if his proposed zoning changes pass because abortion clinics would still have avenues to move into the city.
“It’s very clear: localities have plenary authority on land use decisions,” he said. “We can’t do de facto bans. But this is not a de facto ban. There are parcels available.”
Throughout recent history, localities have turned to zoning as a battleground for “culturally sensitive topics,” ranging from where liquor stores should operate to if data centers should be allowed to move into town, said Rich Schragger, a University of Virginia School of Law professor who has written extensively on the Dillon Rule. Abortion regulations are a new iteration of the same experiment.
Even though Virginia localities have a broad grant of authority when it comes to land use, he said, they don’t have the authority to regulate medical services. The gray area makes abortion-related zoning amendments vulnerable to being struck down — but their true strength won’t be tested unless they are challenged in court.
“They’re actually regulating medical services, not actually regulating land use, right?” he said. “That’s what a judge would question.”
Greenspan said outright prohibitions and de facto bans of abortion services are the most susceptible to being challenged because they infringe on an activity that is protected in state code.
“Localities in Virginia can’t make up their own rules that would contradict with other laws,” she said. “But that’s what they’re doing, banning abortion.”
A state ‘holding the line’ in the South
Whether or not anti-abortion zoning amendments will stand the test of time, they create a climate that pushes clinics away today, according to a 2024 study by RAND, a nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization.
“Local policies were often cited as having the greatest impacts for newer clinics or for clinics opening, considering opening, or considering moving locations,” the report states. “Although zoning or other local actions might have been unenforceable at the state level, respondents spoke to the unwillingness to test these provisions in court.”
Jamie Lockhart, executive director of Planned Parenthood Advocates of Virginia, said that she hasn’t seen access to abortion change because of local amendments and resolutions made in recent years. Largely, that’s because the restrictions have been enacted in areas that didn’t have abortion providers in the first place.
She said the local changes do, however, have an impact on abortion care by creating stigma and politicizing the topic.
A state constitutional amendment would permanently protect Virginians’ right to abortion and would stop the issue from being lobbed back and forth across the aisle year after year as a “political football,” Lockhart said.
“We are very excited about this historic opportunity to amend Virginia’s constitution,” she said. “But in order to do that, we must maintain our pro-reproductive-freedom majority in Virginia’s House of Delegates this November.”
Conversations about protecting reproductive rights in the state’s constitution are happening at a time when Virginia stands as the only Southern state without a restrictive abortion ban. The commonwealth also has more “straightforward, compassionate and efficient” care compared to neighboring states because it has no medically unnecessary barriers, such as waiting periods and counseling, said Lockhart.
In short, “Virginia is holding the line,” Autumn Celeste, the communications director of the Blue Ridge Abortion Fund, said by email.
The organization offers funding and logistical support — covering travel, food, lodging, and other factors necessary to access abortion care — to those seeking abortions in Virginia.
In fiscal year 2021-22, before Roe v. Wade was overturned, the Blue Ridge Abortion Fund distributed about $575,000 to 1,700 callers looking to get abortions in Virginia, Celeste said. In fiscal year 2024-25, the organization gave more than $1.4 million to support about 2,400 callers. The organization has seen a 10% increase in out-of-state patients, particularly from Florida, Georgia and North Carolina, since Virginia’s southern neighbors began banning abortion, Celeste said.
Overall, between a quarter and a third of abortion patients being treated in Virginia today are from out of state, Lockhart said.
“As more states enact bans, patients are crossing multiple state lines just to access basic care. Virginia has become a critical access point,” Celeste said. “That reality is putting immense pressure on providers, abortion funds and support networks here to meet the need.”
Misjuns said he’s well aware of the trend.
“Virginia has the potential to end up being an abortion tourism destination,” he said. “I don’t want that to happen in Lynchburg.”