---
type: "Bill"
title: "Essential health benefits; abortion coverage."
description: "Essential health benefits; abortion coverage.Removes the prohibition on the provision of coverage for abortionsin any qualified health insurance plan that is sold or offered forsale through a health benefits exchange established or operatingin Virginia."
jurisdiction: "us/states/va"
legislature: "Virginia General Assembly"
session: "2021"
identifier: "SB 1276"
citation: "Virginia SB 1276 (2021)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Jennifer L. McClellan"]
version_count: 3
action_count: 25
vote_count: 7
first_action: "2021-01-12"
last_action: "2021-03-12"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/fa0b3ec4-df46-4245-a36f-874fa531264c"
source_url: "https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?212+sum+SB1276"
source_hash: "b34879464cbb1e38c72ef80753acbb2065c8243e97fc421a3925b63f7ac5235b"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-va"]
---

# Virginia SB 1276 (2021) — Essential health benefits; abortion coverage.

Essential health benefits; abortion coverage.Removes the prohibition on the provision of coverage for abortionsin any qualified health insurance plan that is sold or offered forsale through a health benefits exchange established or operatingin Virginia.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **CHAP0102** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?212+ful+CHAP0102)
2. **Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/13/21 21101217D** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?212+ful+SB1276)
3. **SB1276ER** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?212+ful+SB1276ER)

## Votes

- Continued to Special Session 1 in Labor and Commerce — **0–0** (fail) · lower
- Read third time and passed Senate (20-Y 17-N) — **20–17** (pass) · upper
- Rereferred from Education and Health (14-Y 0-N) — **14–0** (pass) · upper
- Constitutional reading dispensed (39-Y 0-N) — **39–0** (pass) · upper
- VOTE: Passage (54-Y 45-N) — **53–45** (pass) · lower
- Reported from Labor and Commerce (13-Y 9-N) — **13–9** (pass) · lower
- Reported from Commerce and Labor (12-Y 2-N) — **12–2** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Jennifer L. McClellan — primary (person)
- Barbara A. Favola — cosponsor (person)
- Betsy B. Carr — cosponsor (person)
- Ghazala F. Hashmi — cosponsor (person)
- Jennifer B. Boysko — cosponsor (person)
- Mamie E. Locke — cosponsor (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2021-01-12** Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/13/21 21101217D `introduction`
- **2021-01-12** Referred to Committee on Education and Health `referral-committee`
- **2021-01-14** Rereferred from Education and Health (14-Y 0-N)
- **2021-01-14** Rereferred to Commerce and Labor `referral-committee`
- **2021-01-18** Impact statement from SCC (SB1276)
- **2021-01-18** Reported from Commerce and Labor (12-Y 2-N) `committee-passage`
- **2021-01-20** Constitutional reading dispensed (39-Y 0-N)
- **2021-01-21** Read second time and engrossed `reading-2`
- **2021-01-22** Read third time and passed Senate (20-Y 17-N) `passage, reading-3`
- **2021-02-02** Placed on Calendar
- **2021-02-02** Read first time `reading-1`
- **2021-02-02** Referred to Committee on Labor and Commerce `referral-committee`
- **2021-02-08** Continued to Special Session 1 in Labor and Commerce
- **2021-02-11** Reported from Labor and Commerce (13-Y 9-N) `committee-passage`
- **2021-02-15** Read second time `reading-2`
- **2021-02-16** Read third time `reading-3`
- **2021-02-16** Passed House (54-Y 45-N) `passage`
- **2021-02-16** VOTE: Passage (54-Y 45-N)
- **2021-02-19** Enrolled
- **2021-02-21** Impact statement from SCC (SB1276ER)
- **2021-02-22** Signed by President
- **2021-02-22** Signed by Speaker
- **2021-02-24** Enrolled Bill Communicated to Governor on February 24, 2021
- **2021-02-24** Governor's Action Deadline 11:59 p.m., March 31, 2021
- **2021-03-12** Approved by Governor-Chapter 102 (effective 7/1/21) `executive-signature`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/fa0b3ec4-df46-4245-a36f-874fa531264c`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Virginia legislature records).