Virginia’s constitution could get pro-abortion makeover

The Virginia Senate on Tuesday approved a veto-proof resolution to add a right to abortion to the state constitution, clearing the first major hurdle in the process of putting the amendment before voters in 2026. Before the vote, an emotional state Sen. T. Travis Hackworth shared the story of his stillborn granddaughter, Allie Rose, who died at 32 weeks gestation. “I stand today asking this body, where’s the rights of Allie Rose? Where’s the rights of the baby? … There’s no guardrails here. … Please do not go down this trail.”

A week ago, Republicans in the House of Delegates gave Del. Mark Earley a standing ovation after he also urged his colleagues to consider the humanity of unborn babies ahead of that chamber’s vote.

“I’m asking the House today to try to break out of our entrenched thinking and to see that there’s another side to this story … there’s another person involved,” Earley said. He spoke of his experience as a foster parent and an adoptive father, noting the joy children bring even though some people claim their life circumstances mean they should not have been born. He also shared his memory of holding the body of their 16-week-old baby after a miscarriage. “This resolution is not only extreme—and it is—but the real problem with it is that it’s fundamentally misguided because it refuses to open its eyes to the lives and futures of children,” Earley said.

But the resolution passed in both chambers along party lines and by margins as narrow as the Democratic majorities in both chambers—51 to 48 in the House (one Republican absent), 21 to 19 in the Senate. It would establish a “fundamental right to reproductive freedom,” allowing for abortion in the first two trimesters of pregnancy for any reason and in the third trimester for broad mental health reasons. To put it on ballots, the legislature will have to pass the resolution again in the first regular session after a statewide election. Earley and other pro-lifers are focused on informing voters about the hidden dangers of the amendment, hoping to secure pro-life votes in the fall 2025 election, when every seat in the House of Delegates will be up for grabs.

As the resolution made its way through the legislature, Family Foundation of Virginia president Victoria Cobb said her team focused on trying to convince “anyone we thought was movable” that they should vote no on the resolution—but without success. “As you can imagine, abortion is a very partisan, party-line situation on the Democrat side,” Cobb explained. “It would be very difficult for a Democrat to not vote for this and get reelected.”

That’s why her team hoped for an upset ahead of a special election earlier this month, when two Senate seats and a House seat were open. All it would take to stop the amendment would be for Republicans to flip one seat in either chamber, bringing the House to a 50-50 tie or the Senate to a 20-20 tie. Without majority support in both chambers, constitutional amendments cannot move forward. “Everyone knew that if a Republican picked up the seat, that’s where it was headed,” Cobb said.

But two of the seats were in deep blue districts—making it unsurprising when Democrats retained them both, keeping narrow majorities.

“We believe voters turned out on both sides knowing this issue—this particular abortion extremism amendment—would be affected by this election,” Cobb said.

Del. Earley said the special election was “never the best chance” to defeat the amendment effort. “The best chance to stop this amendment is this fall’s elections,” he told WORLD. “All we have to do is flip one or two seats in the House, which is imminently doable.”

Abortion is already legal in Virginia for any reason in the first two trimesters and after that if three physicians agree that the pregnancy poses a danger to the woman’s physical or mental health. In 2020, former Gov. Ralph Northam, a Democrat, signed legislation repealing previous laws requiring women seeking abortions to undergo counseling and wait 24 hours before an abortion procedure. Cobb and other pro-lifers are concerned that the amendment, if it passes both sessions and receives voter approval, will give courts a pathway to obliterate other pro-life laws. Among those laws is a requirement that minors obtain parental consent before aborting their unborn children. Pro-lifers also worry the proposed amendment would make late-term abortions even easier to obtain and allow children to undergo life-changing medical attempts to alter characteristics of their biological sex.

“When you create a fundamental positive right to something, that swings the door wide open to taxpayer funding of it, and there are no restrictions in this,” Earley added.

In a statement from the House floor last week, the resolution’s main sponsor, Del. Charniele Herring, denied the amendment would affect the state’s current parental consent requirements. She did not respond to WORLD’s request for an interview.

“I do think, unfortunately, the Democrats here are fast-tracking it,” Earley said ahead of the Senate vote, noting that the session only started on Jan. 8. “It was the first thing introduced, and the Democrats have said it is their top priority.”

Meanwhile, Cobb said she believes some Virginians have been complacent about the amendment because they think their pro-life governor can veto the resolution. But Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, a Republican, does not have that authority over legislatively referred constitutional amendments. Cobb said many Virginians are “just now learning” this.

Educating the voters is crucial to her organization’s strategy moving forward. “Pro-lifers will work very hard to create a pro-life majority,” Cobb said, referencing the upcoming election. “We have had a multi-year plan with lots of specific battles where we hope to derail this amendment. But should it not, we are already working to change hearts and minds and prepare for an education effort with the citizens of Virginia.”