Babies
- Lynchburg Expands Child Protective Services with Kinship Care and Substance Use Experts
Five new positions in Lynchburg’s human services department aim to keep children out of the foster care system and provide more support to families already in it.
- More states ban child marriage, including Virginia, though it’s still legal in most of the United States
After authorities rescued 16 children last month who had been confined to a single room in a home in rural Ohio, attention turned to their mother, who had been 15 and pregnant when she married their father. The child endangerment case has recharged a national conversation around child marriage, which is defined by the United […]
- Virginia measles cases surge past 70, concentrated in Central Virginia
Virginia’s measles count has jumped by more than 30 cases in recent weeks, with most of the infections centered in Central Virginia around Buckingham County. Data from the Virginia Department of Health shows that there have been 77 cases this year, most involving unvaccinated people. The bulk of the cases are babies and children younger […]
- Starting next year, public bathrooms in new Virginia buildings must have diaper-changing stations
A baby changing table in a public restroom. (Photo by Lindsey Nicholson/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images) Sen. Elizabeth Bennett-Parker, D-Alexandria, had an “ah-ha” moment when her daughter, now three, was a newborn. She’d been at a restaurant and needed to change her diaper but there was no changing station in the bathroom. Virginia law […]
- March for Life abortion opponents hit the streets in Virginia March for Life
Attendees of Virginia March For Life in downtown Richmond on April 22, 2026. (Photo by Charlotte Rene Woods/Virginia Mercury) As the governor, advocates and lawmakers celebrated the new maternal health laws inside the Patrick Henry Building Wednesday morning, about 1,000 people gathered outside for the Virginia March for Life Hosted with support from the Family […]
- Winsome Earle-Sears On the Record
After four years presiding over the state Senate, Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears is attempting to make the leap to the governor’s mansion this fall. She is running on a platform of conservative values and her campaign largely mirrors the themes that brought Gov. Glenn Youngkin victory in 2021 — parents’ rights, fiscal responsibility and defending personal freedoms.
- Virginia launches new dashboards to track maternal deaths, improve pregnancy outcomes
Virginia is rolling out a new set of tools aimed at tackling one of the most urgent health disparities in the country. Gov. Glenn Youngkin on Thursday announced the release of two new dashboards — one tracking maternal mortality and the other pregnancy-associated deaths — alongside an upgraded Maternal and Child Health (MCH) Dashboard that […]
- Abortion (killing babies) up to 40 Weeks Coming to Virginia thanks to Democrats
Today, the Virginia House of Delegates voted 51 to 48 to advance HJ1, the unlimited abortion amendment. This devastating decision sets Virginia on a path toward the most extreme abortion policy in the United States
- Addition of Two New Disorders to Virginia’s Newborn Screening Program
Beginning March 16, Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) and X-linked Adrenoleukodystrophy (X-ALD) will join a screening panel of metabolic and genetic disorders that range from the more well-known Cystic Fibrosis to many relatively obscure conditions that can cause severe sickness, physical or mental disabilities, even death, if not diagnosed early.