FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 1, 2019
Contact: Jennifer Wang
(202) 812-9325 / jwang@napawf.org

Washington, D.C. – This week Virginia lawmaker Kathy Tran, member of the Virginia House of Delegates representing District 42, and the first Asian American woman to serve in the Virginia House, was the target of a manufactured smear campaign after she reintroduced a bill, which had already been introduced in two previous legislative sessions, to remove existing draconian abortion restrictions in the state.

National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum Executive Director Sung Yeon Choimorrow issued the following statement in response:

“We stand with Delegate Kathy Tran in her effort to give Virginians the agency to make critical decisions about their lives and their families. Delegate Tran has said that her reasoning for reintroducing this bill was informed by listening to the stories of the women in her family and in her district who shared with her their experiences grappling with existing barriers to abortion access. We question the intentions behind the widespread attacks on Delegate Tran and why previous introductions of this bill did not prompt similar smear campaigns. Delegate Tran has a long track record of standing with women, including immigrant women and working women. That she is being unscrupulously attacked for standing firmly behind the values and priorities of women in her district is indicative of just how low those who wish to silence and invisiblize AAPI women and girls will go.”

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The National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum (NAPAWF) is the only multi-issue, progressive, community organizing and policy advocacy organization for Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) women and girls in the U.S. NAPAWF’s mission is to build collective power so that all AAPI women and girls can have full agency over our lives, our families, and our communities.