RICHMOND, Virginia (LifeSiteNews) — Democrat lawmakers in Virginia have begun the process of introducing a constitutional amendment that would codify a “right” to abortion throughout the Old Dominion.
On Monday, Democrats announced plans to propose an amendment to the state’s constitution during the 2024 legislative session, seeking to radically expand abortion in the state. Virginia law allows abortion up to 26 weeks of pregnancy with broad exceptions further in pregnancy for “health.”
The announcement comes just weeks after Democrats claimed control of both the Virginia House of Delegates and the Senate, further hindering Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s goal of passing a 15-week abortion ban. Democrats are seeking an upheaval of abortion restrictions to establish a “right” to kill the unborn at any stage of pregnancy.
In a November 20 statement posted to X by the Virginia GOP, the state’s official Republican Party condemned the plans, calling the proposed amendment “radical.”
🚨OUR FULL STATEMENT ON VIRGINIA DEMOCRATS’ SLATE OF RADICAL LEFT-WING BILLS:
Today, after running an entire campaign on “maintaining the status quo,” Virginia Democrats introduced a slate of radical bills that would upend existing law and turn our Commonwealth into a failed…
— Virginia GOP (@VA_GOP) November 20, 2023
“Today, after running an entire campaign on ‘maintaining the status quo,’ Virginia Democrats introduced a slate of radical bills that would upend existing law and turn our Commonwealth into a failed left-wing state like California or New York,” the GOP’s statement reads.
“Their very first order of business was to introduce an amendment that would enshrine a right to unrestricted late-term abortion-on-demand in the Virginia Constitution. Despite Democrat House leader [Don Scott] explicitly telling the Virginia-Pilot that ‘the goal is for [abortion] laws to remain the same’ before the election, Democrats are now seeking to make abortion at any stage of pregnancy legal for any reason – a far more radical policy than the existing limit of 26 weeks.”
The Virginia GOP cited in another post data showing a large number of Old Dominion residents stand behind keeping the state’s abortion laws as they are or enforcing greater restrictions. One poll released last month found that nearly 50 percent of Virginia’s likely voters were in favor of keeping the 26-week limit on abortion in state law while 24 percent voiced support for increased restrictions. The Christopher Newport University-conducted poll showed that only 23 percent indicated support for lessening the current restrictions in the law.
Leaders of the Family Foundation (TFF), a pro-life public policy organization based in Virginia’s capital city of Richmond, affirmed the lack of support from voters for radical abortion measures.
“While pro-abortion majorities make it difficult to stop in the legislature, Virginians are not in favor of abortion on demand up to the moment of birth,” TFF president Victoria Cobb told LifeSiteNews in a statement.
Should the Virginia constitution be successfully amended, it would become one of the top pro-abortion states in the nation alongside Ohio, which codified a “right” to abortion in its state constitution during the November 7 election.
New York and California have also adapted state law to protect radical abortion laws that defend a fundamental “right” to kill the unborn and decriminalize abortion, even to the point of birth in some cases.
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