RICHMOND, Virginia (LifeSiteNews) — The Virginia Senate voted 21-19 to advance a proposed constitutional amendment that could eventually embed a “right” to abortion at any point of pregnancy in the Virginia Constitution.
The so-called “Virginia Right to Reproductive Freedom Amendment” contains a “fundamental right to reproductive freedom [abortion], including” decisions relating to “contraception” and “abortion care” that “shall not be, directly or indirectly, denied, burdened, or infringed upon unless justified by a compelling state interest achieved by the least restrictive means.” A “compelling state interest” would be recognized “only if it is for the limited purpose of maintaining or improving the health of an individual seeking care, consistent with accepted clinical standards of care and evidence-based medicine and does not infringe on that individual’s autonomous decision making.”
Ostensibly, the amendment would allow abortion to be “regulate(d)” in the third trimester as long as it is still allowed for babies that a physician deems “not viable” or abortions “medically indicated to protect the life or physical or mental health of the pregnant individual.” The latter exception would give abortionists latitude to justify virtually any abortion in the third trimester.
Abortion, the murder of an unborn child in his or her mother’s womb, is always gravely immoral and is never medically necessary or justifiable.
The Christian Post reported that the Virginia Senate narrowly approved the measure in late January on a pure party-line vote. It now moves to the state General Assembly for consideration.
If the Assembly also approves the amendment, it will have to be approved by both chambers a second time in the next legislative session, at which point it would then appear on the 2026 ballot for final approval by the voters with a simple-majority vote. Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin, who has vetoed pro-abortion measures in the past, has no role in the process.
“Fighting for the right to terminate the lives of unborn babies seems to be at the heart of (Democrats’) movement. They’ve brought bill after bill,” Republican Sen. Mark Peake told The Federalist.
“The only hope is that Republicans regain control of the House this fall, and then it really will go four more years before (potentially) making it to the ballot,” he added. “If Democrats hold the House this fall, they will pass (the amendment) again in January and it will go straight to the voters. The important part then will be our ability to educate the public on what the Constitutional amendment actually does.”
Thirteen states currently ban all or most abortions. But the abortion lobby is working feverishly to cancel out those deterrents via deregulated interstate distribution of abortion pills, legal protection and financial support of interstate abortion travel, constructing new abortion facilities near borders shared by pro-life and pro-abortion states, making liberal states sanctuaries for those who want to evade or violate the laws of more pro-life neighbors, and embedding abortion “rights” in state constitutions.
Such amendments have been the abortion lobby’s most potent tactic. Up until 2024, it had consistent success since the overturn of Roe v. Wade using false claims that pro-life laws are dangerous to stoke fear about the issue among the general public.
After 2020, pro-lifers either failed to enact pro-life amendments or stop pro-abortion ones in California, Kentucky, Michigan, Montana, Vermont, and Ohio, prompting much conversation among pro-lifers about the need to develop new strategies to protect life at the ballot box as well as consternation within the Republican Party over the political ramifications of continuing to take a clear pro-life position.
Ten states had such amendments on the ballot in November 2024. Pro-lifers defeated pro-abortion ballot initiatives in Florida, Nebraska, and South Dakota, breaking the abortion lobby’s two-year winning streak, but amendments to embed abortion “rights” in state constitutions prevailed in the remaining states.
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