As Roday escalates abortion-related attacks, Avula campaign blasts ‘false’ claims
Richmond mayoral candidate Harrison Roday stepped up his attacks questioning Dr. Danny Avula’s stance on abortion rights this week by raising the issue on live television and authorizing an abortion-themed mailer that called Avula a “senior member” of Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s administration.
Roday, a software investor and nonprofit leader who previously worked for a manufacturing-focused private equity firm, has long signaled his desire to draw a contrast with Avula on reproductive rights.
The critiques took a sharper turn this week, making abortion an unexpected flashpoint in the five-person race to be the next mayor of Virginia’s capital city. Local officials have little to no power to change state or federal abortion laws, but they can take smaller steps to make it easier or harder for abortion clinics to operate in their area.
Avula’s campaign fired back at Roday by calling his claims “false” and sharing audio with The Richmonder of a phone call Roday made seeking support from businessman Ken Newsome, whose $25,000 donation to Avula was spotlighted in the pro-Roday mailer as an example of Avula’s alleged ties to conservative figures.
The voicemail
In a voicemail Roday left for Newsome, the CEO of Markel Food Group, Roday mentioned his candidacy for mayor, referenced Newsome’s support for 2016 mayoral candidate Jack Berry and said he wanted to get to know Newsome to “potentially earn your support over time.”
In a statement to The Richmonder, the Avula campaign accused Roday of “being hypocritical.” Roday too, the campaign said, has taken money from donors who also give to Republicans and “personally asked for support from the same donor he’s attacking Danny on now.”
“This has been a largely positive campaign up to now,” said Avula campaign manager Lawson Wijesooriya. “By attacking Danny, Mr. Roday isn’t demonstrating leadership for the city, but rather desperately seeking to win by tearing down a well-respected and trusted local leader.”
When asked about the voicemail, Roday’s campaign suggested he didn’t fully know who he was calling.
“Harrison cold-called through a list of people who had previously contributed to Jack Berry, including Ken Newsome,” said Roday campaign spokeswoman Katie Baker. “Harrison did not recognize Newsome’s name at that time and never took a contribution from him.”
The TV forum
At a Tuesday night forum broadcast by VPM and NBC12, Roday said he was “confused” about what Avula means when he talks about his support for “reproductive health care.”
“He mentioned working for the Department of Social Services. That was under Gov. Youngkin, who campaigned for an abortion ban,” Roday said. “And when he led the department, he issued a pregnancy help card that directed women to places that explicitly don’t talk about abortion. And in fact, scare people into thinking abortion is not a choice at all.”
Avula — a pediatrician who served as a local health official and oversaw Virginia’s COVID-19 vaccination effort before being chosen to lead the Virginia Department of Social Services under Youngkin — responded by saying he fully supports the right to choose abortion.
“I’m a physician. I support health care providers being able to make decisions without the government intervening,” Avula said during the forum. “It’s easy to talk about supporting these things. But I am the only candidate at this table that actually spent a decade drawing in new resources locally and federally to expand access to reproductive health care in the lowest-income, most vulnerable communities in our city.”
The pregnancy card
Roday was referring to a “Pregnancy Help Card” created by the National Safe Haven Alliance (NSHA), a nonprofit that promotes laws allowing parents to safely surrender newborns they feel they can’t keep.
The card, which is posted on the Department of Social Services website, is written for women who just learned they are pregnant. It includes the website for Option Line, an anti-abortion hotline that refers women to pregnancy centers that don’t provide abortion services.
The NSHA card is posted on a section of the Social Services website titled “Safe Haven Toolkit.” The card notes that it describes services NSHA provides, “not the state of Virginia.”
Virginia has a safe haven law that allows parents to surrender unwanted infants less than 30 days old to hospitals and EMS agencies without facing criminal charges.
A safe haven bill the General Assembly passed in 2022 with broad, bipartisan support required the Department of Social Services to establish a 24-hour safe haven hotline and a promotional campaign to boost awareness of the law. The department partnered with NSHA to comply with those mandates, according to agency documents.
The pregnancy cards — the state agency explained in guidance to local officials — were meant to provide “information for pregnant people on the services and resources offered by NSHA.”
“Thank you in advance for helping prevent the abandonment of infants in unsafe locations,” the 2023 agency memo said.
Avula’s campaign said that, as the leader of one of Virginia’s largest state agencies, he wasn’t involved in lower-level decisions about resources from an outside group being posted online. Had Avula seen the card in question, the campaign said, he would not have approved it.
The pro-Roday mailer
In a mailer that arrived at many Richmonders’ homes Wednesday, Roday and the progressive activist group New Virginia Majority reiterated the pregnancy card accusation. The mailer claims Avula’s agency “directed pregnant women to anti-abortion clinics that deliberately misled patients.”
Funded by New Virginia Majority and authorized by Roday, the mailer also points to Avula’s involvement more than a decade ago with a local nonprofit, First Things First of Greater Richmond, that seemed to promote socially conservative views on marriage, sex and abortion in addition to less-controversial priorities like responsible fatherhood and healthy family relationships.
The mailer quotes Avula as praising the group’s “phenomenal work,” a reference to a 2013 Richmond Times-Dispatch op-ed in which Avula praised First Things First for its work on initiatives related to fatherhood and stable families. Avula’s op-ed — headlined “Healthy family model can make the difference” — doesn’t mention abortion, but talks up access to contraception and “delayed sexual activity” as ways to reduce teen pregnancy.
The mailer doesn’t mention Newsome by name. But it connects “Avula’s top donor” to the anti-abortion and anti-LGBTQ Family Foundation, a clear reference to Newsome, and says the group recently “sued to stop a Planned Parenthood clinic from opening in Richmond.”
Newsome has said he hasn’t been involved with the Family Foundation in more than a decade. His own views on gay and abortion rights have evolved, he said recently, and he now supports Avula’s positions.
Avula’s campaign has pushed back against the accusation he has hidden right-wing beliefs by highlighting several examples of prominent Democrats treating him as a respected public health figure and one of their own, including former Gov. Terry McAuliffe appointing him to the State Board of Social Services in 2013 and former Gov. Ralph Northam selecting him to lead Virginia's vaccine effort in 2021. They’ve also noted the local health district Avula formerly led partnered with Planned Parenthood on an initiative to provide free condoms and STD testing.
After raising more money than all his competitors in the mayoral race, Avula has been dominating the TV airwaves early with ads that convey support for LGBTQ equality and abortion rights.
His most recent ad features Dr. Wendy Klein, the former director of primary care programs for the Virginia League for Planned Parenthood, vouching for his pro-choice credentials.
“Mr. Roday continues to misrepresent my position on reproductive rights,” Avula said in his campaign’s statement. “The attacks are false. I strongly support the rights of women and families to make their own healthcare decisions with their doctor.”
Klein serves on the board of Roe your Vote Virginia, a PAC created to help pro-abortion rights candidates win in the 2023 General Assembly elections. Roday sits on the same board.
When asked about Avula’s ad featuring Klein after a recent news conference, Roday didn’t back down, saying Youngkin “made no secret” of his desire to ban abortion when he ran for governor in 2021.
“And Dr. Avula made a conscious decision to apply for a job, a very senior job, in that administration,” Roday said. “I think people, and Richmonders, are intelligent and will come to their own conclusions about what that means.”
