This week, Members of the House of Delegates committee on Privileges and Elections “advanced three constitutional amendments to the full House on Wednesday.” One of those amendments would, if adopted, enshrine abortion ‘rights’ until birth for any reason. Currently, nine states plus Washington, D.C. allow abortion with no restrictions.
The “Fundamental right to reproductive freedom”— or what the Virginia Society for Human Life (VSHL) is more accurately calling the “Abortion up to birth amendment” — was brought up before the House Privileges and Elections Committee on Wednesday, November 13th, and was advanced in a party-line vote. The move appears to be an acceleration of the declared timeline put forth by big money abortion groups.
“Getting this right, something this big with life and death consequences, I think deserves more than just this meeting,” House Republican Leader Todd Gilbert said, according to local station WTKR.
Earlier this year, the pro-abortion lobby sent bills to the governor’s desk intending to shield abortionists who break laws in Virginia or elsewhere. Governor Youngkin vetoed the bills, Live Action News reports.
The wording of HJ1 (and its companion SJ1) is similar to the ACLU- and Planned Parenthood-funded constitutional amendment in Montana that voters adopted. The wording of the amendment is the most extreme abortion proposal in Virginia, and would negate any and all abortion limits, such as Virginia’s already late limit on abortion, which is after the widely-accepted age of viability, and sits at 26 weeks and 6 days. It completely excludes any reference to viability and includes no limits except to “ensure the protection of the health of an individual seeking care.”
Yet somehow, inexplicably, local station WTKR claims, “Like current state law, it says Virginia may regulate abortion care in the third trimester of pregnancy, although Republicans questioned whether the language is as specific as state law.” Nowhere does the amendment state anything about regulation of abortion at all, nor does it mention trimesters of pregnancy.
Similar to other recently-passed pro-abortion amendments, the amendment text even contains controversial “pregnancy outcomes” language that some legal experts believe could allow for the decriminalization of infanticide.
The text reads:
That every individual has the fundamental right to reproductive freedom. 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. 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 Commonwealth shall not discriminate in the protection or enforcement of this fundamental right.
That, except when justified by a compelling state interest, the Commonwealth shall not penalize, prosecute, or otherwise take adverse action against an individual on the basis of an actual, potential, perceived, or alleged outcome of such individual’s pregnancy, nor shall the Commonwealth penalize, prosecute, or otherwise take adverse action against an individual who aids or assists another individual, with such individual’s voluntary consent, in the exercise of such individual’s right to reproductive freedom.
The amendment would negate parental consent laws, which would not only put minors in danger, but as Live Action News has reported, would also aid in covering up human trafficking. Human trafficking only became illegal in Virginia in 2015, and Virginia currently ranks 15th in the nation for human trafficking.
What’s worse, it would also prevent any potential limitations or more popular common-sense restrictions on abortion in the future. It would enshrine abortion up to birth in Virginia’s constitution permanently.
This is not the first time lawmakers have attempted to legalize abortion up to birth in Virginia by a proposed constitutional amendment. And back in 2019, Delegate Kathy Tran was lambasted after introducing a bill to legalize abortion up to birth in the state. At that time, Del. Todd Gilbert questioned Tran:
So where it’s obvious that a woman is about to give birth, she has physical signs that she’s about to give birth, would that still be a point at which she could still request an abortion if she was so certified [as needing an abortion to protect her mental health]? She’s dilating?
Tran responded, “Mr. Chairman, you know, that would be a decision that the doctor, the physician, and the woman would make.”
Gilbert replied, “I understand that. I’m asking if your bill allows that.”
Tran said, “My bill would allow that, yes.”
In order for Virginia’s constitution to be amended, a resolution supporting the amendment must pass both the House and Senate during the same legislative session, and then sit until after a general House election. The same resolution must then pass both the House and Senate again. After this is complete, the amendment is placed on the ballot, which original estimates of big-money abortion groups place at 2026.
If a majority of voters vote in favor of it, Virginia’s constitution will be amended. The current legislative session is majority Democratic with a pro-life governor; however, there is little a pro-life governor can do to put the brakes on this process.
According to VSHL, “Having a pro-life majority of State Senate or House of Delegates defeat the resolution in the General Assembly or Virginians defeat the bill during a ballot initiative. We believe it is important to defeat this Amendment when being voted on by the Virginia General Assembly. Planned Parenthood, with vast financial resources, would dramatically outspend pro-life efforts if the Amendment goes to a referendum.”
But at least one political scientist at the University of Mary Washington suggests that the path forward for the amendment may not be as easy and straightforward as pro-lifers fear.
Stephen Farnsworth of the University told NBC4 last year: “One of the realities that we sometimes see in politics these days is that popular ideas don’t necessarily reach a consensus across party lines. So going to the voters might be a way to resolve, once and for all, some of these issues.”
However, as was seen with recent pro-abortion ballot initiatives put to voters, most passed. Though it has become popular to say that overturning Roe v. Wade was positive because it will now allow states to decide their own abortion laws, the fact remains that allowing voters to decide which innocent human beings may be discriminated against and then executed, and which may not, is unjust. The first human right, the right to life, should not be up for a majority vote.
With the most recent Virginia election keeping an abortion-friendly Democratic majority in both house and senate, hopefully local and national pro-life groups will step-up their funding, activism, and voter education in the years to come.
The Committee meeting video can be found at the link here on the date of Wednesday, November 13, 2024.
Call on President Trump to pardon the FACE Act prisoners on his first day in office.
