RICHMOND, Virginia (LifeSiteNews) — The Virginia state Senate this month passed a bill to enshrine abortion in the Commonwealth’s constitution. The director of the Virginia Society for Human Life has called the measure “dangerous” and “extreme” and asked Virginians to urge the House of Delegates not to pass it.
The Democrat-led Senate passed the bill in a 21-18 vote on February 7. The measure now rests with a subcommittee of the House of Delegates, which on February 17 decided 5-3 to put off a vote indefinitely. The Virginia House maintains a narrow 52-48 Republican majority.
If passed into law, the measure would add misleading and gender-neutral language to Article 1 of Virginia’s Bill of Rights by proclaiming that “every individual has the fundamental right to reproductive freedom [sic].”
“This right to make and effectuate one’s own decisions about all matters related to one’s pregnancy shall not be denied, burdened, or infringed upon, unless justified by a compelling state interest and achieved by the least restrictive means that do not infringe an individual’s autonomous decision-making,” the proposed amendment states.
“A state interest is compelling only when it is to ensure the protection of the health of an individual seeking care, consistent with accepted clinical standards of practice and evidence-based medicine,” the legislation continues. “The Commonwealth shall not discriminate in the protection or enforcement of this fundamental right.”
The amendment would also explicitly forbid any state action against individuals who aid and abet a woman in the procurement of an abortion.
Republican Sen. Steve Newman told a local ABC affiliate that he opposes the bill because it would constitutionally protect extreme late-term abortions.
“That’s just a radical plan and I don’t think any state in the union has ever done that and we should not start here in Virginia,” Newman said.
Jamie Lockhart, executive director of Planned Parenthood Advocates of Virginia, told the outlet that her pro-abortion group supports the bill because it would shut down debate surrounding abortion restrictions.
“Then it wouldn’t be a constant battle and a constant threat that abortion would be banned here in the Commonwealth,” Lockhart said, according to the report.
She observed, however, that the Virginia House has already scrapped pro-abortion legislation during this legislative session.
The constitutional amendment would need to be passed by both the Senate and the House, but it won’t land on the governor’s desk.
Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin, who has promised to sign “any bill … to protect life” and last month endorsed a bill to ban abortions at 15 weeks in the historically blue state, has no power to sign or veto the proposed amendment.
READ: Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin endorses proposed bill banning abortion at 15 weeks
“I can’t stress enough how dangerous this extreme amendment is to unborn babies in Virginia,” said Olivia Gans, director of the Virginia Society for Human Life.
“The Right-to-Abortion Amendment has already passed the State Senate and Governor Youngkin can NOT veto constitutional Amendments,” she said, urging Virginians to reach out to their delegates immediately to express opposition to “this extreme amendment.”
Gans said that while “Pro-Abortion politicians and activists are trying to push this amendment through with innocent sounding language by calling it ‘personal reproductive freedom,’” pro-life advocates “know what the amendment really means.”
According to Gans, the amendment would green-light “Abortion-on-Demand for any reason, throughout all nine months of pregnancy, and paid for with taxpayer dollars,” without any curbs against “Partial-Birth Abortions or after unborn children feel pain.”
She said the board amendment would also place “No restrictions on abortions through all nine months of pregnancy right up to birth,” and fail to guard “teenage girls and their unborn babies from unscrupulous abortionists.”
Finally, according to Gans, the constitutional amendment would ensure that “[n]o new pro-life laws” could be passed in the Commonwealth.
“While there is a multi-step process required to pass any Constitutional amendments in Virginia, it is clear that our legislators in the General Assembly must hear from us now and throughout this upcoming session,” Gans said. “[W]e must share our opposition to any such attempt to codify abortion on demand into the state constitution.”
Virginia residents interested in reaching out to their delegates to express their opposition to the measure may do so by following this link.