(LifeSiteNews) — Ten states have passed constitutional amendments supporting the right to abortion, so pro-lifers in Virginia are justifiably worried as it becomes the next target this January.
When the Virginia General Assembly convenes on January 8, 2025, an amendment (HJ 1/SJ 247) to enshrine abortion into the Virginia Constitution is expected to be one of the first matters of legislative business to hit the Virginia House and Senate floors.
Unlike other states, the amendment can be put to a vote of the people in Virginia only after it has first passed the Virginia legislature twice, with an election of the House of Delegates occurring in between. This constitutional requirement gives the people of Virginia the chance to try to stop the amendment in the Virginia legislature.
The pro-abortion majority in the Virginia legislature has very narrow control of both chambers (Senate: 20 Democrats, 18 Republicans, 2 Vacancies; House of Delegates: 50 Democrats, 49 Republicans, 1 Vacancy), so pro-life Virginians could possibly defeat the amendment this January if they make their voices heard.
We have only to look to the other states whose constitutions have been altered to predict the negative impact that the extreme abortion amendment will cause to current and future laws in Virginia. Michigan’s restriction on publicly funded Medicaid abortions has been challenged on the grounds that it “burdens and infringes” on the right to abortion, and that it “discriminates.” In Ohio and Michigan, waiting periods prior to an abortion have been temporarily blocked.
Within 24 hours of passage of the Missouri constitutional amendment, abortion rights groups filed a lawsuit challenging numerous Missouri pro-life laws, including a telemedicine ban on chemical abortions, a law requiring that physicians only perform abortions, prohibitions on abortions based on gestational age, as well as a 72-hour waiting period and informed consent requirements. Even Missouri’s prohibition on abortions based on the race, sex, or Down Syndrome diagnosis of an unborn child was challenged.
Parents in particular should be alarmed by the proposed Virginia amendment. HJ 1/SJ 247 is equally applicable to minors since it states that every “individual”—not every “adult” —has a right to reproductive freedom. Even legislation to protect the health of a minor accessing reproductive care will be negated if a court finds that it violates a minor’s “autonomous decision making.”
Virginia’s current requirement for parental consent prior to a minor child’s abortion will surely fall victim to HJ 1/SJ 247. In Missouri, some abortion rights groups are vocally upset that the state’s parental consent law was not amongst the laws challenged by an initial lawsuit under the newly enacted constitutional amendment on abortion.
RELATED: Radical pro-abortion amendments pass in Arizona, Colorado, Maryland, Montana, and Nevada
Supporters of HJ 1/SJ 247 assert that there is no language in the amendment that overturns parental rights with regard to abortion. But Virginia’s parental consent for abortion requirement, as well as other parental rights, will be overturned by “death by adjudication,” as court cases are brought forward and judges implement HJ 1/SJ 247.
HJ 1/SJ 247’s impact on parental rights will not just be limited to abortions for minor girls. The right of an “individual” (a minor girl or boy) to “reproductive freedom” could foreseeably include contraception, sterilization, sex-change surgery, and any and all matters relating to “reproductive freedom.” Parents could be cut out of the decision-making in an area with profound emotional, physical, and spiritual ramifications.
Moreover, parents could have no legal recourse under the Virginia Constitution against those who assist their child in accessing this reproductive care, as HJ 1/SJ 247 specifically states that “the Commonwealth shall not penalize, prosecute, or otherwise take adverse action against any individual for aiding or assisting another individual in exercising such other individual’s right to reproductive freedom with such other individual’s voluntary consent.”
READ: Pro-abortion groups file lawsuit to overturn Arizona’s 15-week ban
If this reproductive freedom amendment becomes embedded into the Virginia Constitution, it may never be reversed. Now is the time for pro-life Virginians to speak up to their Virginia legislators.
Susan T. Muskett is an attorney and pro-life advocate who writes out of Reston, Virginia.