{"id":24253,"date":"2026-03-29T13:09:57","date_gmt":"2026-03-29T13:09:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/?p=24253"},"modified":"2026-03-29T13:09:57","modified_gmt":"2026-03-29T13:09:57","slug":"how-radical-is-the-virginia-abortion-amendment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/?p=24253","title":{"rendered":"How Radical Is the Virginia Abortion Amendment?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n Reading Time:<\/span> 2<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

(THE DAILY SIGNAL) \u2013 Gov.\u00a0Abigail Spanberger is currently considering whether to sign a bill\u00a0to\u00a0codify\u00a0contraceptive access\u00a0in Virginia,\u00a0but\u00a0for progressive policymakers in the state, the real battle for \u201creproductive\u00a0rights\u201d will take place this\u00a0November.\n<\/p>\n

Do you want\u00a0<\/span>s<\/span>tate<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>p<\/span>rayer\u00a0<\/span>a<\/span>lerts<\/span>?\u00a0<\/span><\/h4>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

This is\u00a0when\u00a0voters in the\u00a0commonwealth\u00a0will\u00a0decide\u00a0whether to\u00a0enshrine abortion\u00a0on demand\u00a0into the state\u00a0constitution\u00a0with\u00a0House Joint Resolution No. 1. Similar\u00a0ballot measures\u00a0in other states\u00a0have struck\u00a0down\u00a0pro-life\u00a0laws,\u00a0such as\u00a0Ohio\u2019s\u00a0law for the proper disposal of fetal remains.\u00a0But\u00a0HJ1 is\u00a0the most extreme\u00a0of these ballot measures\u00a0due to\u00a0its\u00a0vague\u00a0legal wording.\n<\/p>\n

Current\u00a0Virginia\u00a0law\u00a0is already extremely permissive, allowing\u00a0abortion\u00a0all the way through the second\u00a0trimester. In the third trimester,\u00a0three doctors\u00a0must\u00a0certify\u00a0that\u00a0\u201cthe pregnancy is likely to result in the death of the woman or substantially and irremediably impair the mental or physical health of the woman.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

The proposed amendment\u00a0would change this rule\u00a0to only\u00a0need one physician (namely\u00a0an\u00a0abortion provider)\u00a0to\u00a0determine\u00a0if\u00a0it would protect the\u00a0\u201clife or physical or mental health of the pregnant individual.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Voters might mistakenly think that terms like \u201cphysical and mental health\u201d provide real\u00a0guardrails. But they\u00a0don\u2019t.\u00a0Physical and mental health are not defined in the proposal. That means an abortion provider could\u00a0decide that\u00a0almost anything\u00a0counts as a threat to someone\u2019s \u201cmental health.\u201d For example,\u00a0a late-term abortion\u00a0could be approved\u00a0simply because the mother says having a baby would be too stressful.\u00a0The legislature could have clearly defined those\u00a0terms,\u00a0but\u00a0it\u00a0didn\u2019t.\n<\/p>\n

That\u2019s\u00a0not the only way this measure is extreme.\u00a0Virginia\u00a0Democrats\u00a0never use the word \u201cwoman\u201d in the resolution. Their decision to use \u201cpregnant individual\u201d suggests someone other than women can become pregnant.\n<\/p>\n

Democrats\u00a0also\u00a0voted down\u00a0an\u00a0amendment\u00a0to the ballot measure\u00a0that would\u00a0allow protections for babies who are born alive after surviving\u00a0botched abortion attempts.\n<\/p>\n

They also\u00a0rejected\u00a0another amendment that would have\u00a0kept\u00a0parental consent and\u00a0notification\u00a0laws\u00a0in place.\u00a0Right\u00a0now,\u00a0minors need a parent\u2019s permission to get a\u00a0tattoo, go on a school field trip,\u00a0and\u00a0play sports. But if this\u00a0amendment\u00a0passes, a\u00a0child could undergo a surgical\u00a0abortion\u00a0or take dangerous abortion drugs without\u00a0their\u00a0parent being\u00a0told.\u00a0It could\u00a0even\u00a0be\u00a0facilitated\u00a0by\u00a0a\u00a0school\u00a0without a parent\u2019s knowledge or consent.\n<\/p>\n

If\u00a0you think\u00a0schools would never\u00a0facilitate\u00a0abortions behind the\u00a0parents\u2019\u00a0backs,\u00a0then you should know that it\u00a0has\u00a0already\u00a0happened\u00a0in Fairfax County.\n<\/p>\n

According to\u00a0The Family Foundation,\u00a0Fairfax County\u00a0school\u00a0officials arranged and paid for abortions\u00a0using school resources\u00a0for two minor students\u00a0last fall\u00a0without\u00a0informing their\u00a0parents. If\u00a0the amendment is ratified,\u00a0similar\u00a0situations\u00a0wouldn\u2019t just be\u00a0allowed,\u00a0they could become common across\u00a0the commonwealth.\n<\/p>\n

There are even concerns that the amendment goes beyond abortion.\u00a0Take sex-rejecting sterilization procedures, for example. Right now, minors\u00a0need\u00a0parental consent\u00a0for these kinds of procedures.\u00a0The Family Foundation has\u00a0pointed out\u00a0that since\u00a0\u201cfertility care\u201d includes sterilization procedures,\u00a0individuals\u00a0could\u00a0have a right to\u00a0sterilization, puberty blockers, and sex-rejecting surgeries.\n<\/p>\n

Will the commonwealth\u00a0be the first state in the country to remove parental consent for sex-rejecting surgeries for minors?\u00a0Not even California and New York have gone that far.\n<\/p>\n

Virginia state Sen. Glen Sturtevant said this amendment would be\u00a0\u201cthe most extreme\u201d\u00a0in the\u00a0nation.\u00a0Unlimited, taxpayer-funded\u00a0sex-rejecting surgeries and\u00a0abortion till birth with no parental consent\u00a0is radical.\u00a0It\u2019s\u00a0dangerous for women, children, and unborn\u00a0babies.\n<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s\u00a0hope that as more Virginians learn how extreme this resolution is,\u00a0they\u2019ll\u00a0say \u201cno\u201d in November.\n<\/p>\n

Share your prayers for radical states like Virginia below.<\/h4>\n

This article was originally published in The Daily Signal.<\/em>\n<\/p>\n

\u00a0
\n \n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reading Time: 2 minutes (THE DAILY SIGNAL) \u2013 Gov.\u00a0Abigail Spanberger is currently considering whether to sign a bill\u00a0to\u00a0codify\u00a0contraceptive access\u00a0in Virginia,\u00a0but\u00a0for progressive policymakers in the state, the real battle for \u201creproductive\u00a0rights\u201d will take place this\u00a0November. Do you want\u00a0state\u00a0prayer\u00a0alerts?\u00a0 \u00a0 This is\u00a0when\u00a0voters in the\u00a0commonwealth\u00a0will\u00a0decide\u00a0whether to\u00a0enshrine abortion\u00a0on demand\u00a0into the state\u00a0constitution\u00a0with\u00a0House Joint Resolution No. 1. Similar\u00a0ballot measures\u00a0in other states\u00a0have<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24254,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[205,3361,781,2517],"class_list":["post-24253","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-prayer","tag-abortion","tag-amendment","tag-radical","tag-virginia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24253","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24253"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24253\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/24254"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}