Virginia Democrats, who narrowly won both the House of Delegates and the Senate in Virginia, are now looking to codify “the right” to abortion into the state Constitution.

Virginia Democrats filed the proposal that will be presented on January 10, 2020, following their November 7 election victory. The proposal’s language would establish “a fundamental right to reproductive liberty.”

Every individual has a fundamental right to freedom of reproduction. This right of an individual to make their own decisions and to carry them out in all aspects related to pregnancy is not to be denied, burdened or infringed unless it is justified by a compelling interest on the part of the state and can only be achieved using least restrictive methods that don’t interfere with an individual’s autonomy. State interests are only compelling when they protect the health of a person seeking care in accordance with clinical standards and evidence-based medical practices. The Commonwealth will not discriminate when it comes to protecting or enforcing this fundamental right.

The Commonwealth will not punish, prosecute or take any other adverse action on an individual based on an actual, potential or perceived outcome of their pregnancy. Nor will the Commonwealth penalize or prosecute an individual for assisting another individual in exercising his or her right to reproductive liberty with the consent of that individual.

Although proposed constitutional amendments are not required to be signed by the governor in Virginia, the resolution has to pass both chambers of the legislature in two sessions spread over at least two year before it can be put up for public vote. The resolution will appear on the Virginia ballot in November 2026.

Virginia currently allows abortions up to 26 weeks. After that point, abortion is legal to save a mother’s life or health. Virginia is the only state in the south that hasn’t passed any significant restrictions on abortions since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.

The Republican Governor of Virginia and the Democratic Gov. Glenn Youngkin is pushing for a restriction on abortions after 15 weeks, when it’s believed that unborn babies can feel pain. The Democrats used the midterm elections of 2022 and the successes of abortion ballot measures in the United States to frame the Virginia election as the next referendum regarding “abortion right”.

At least nine states have abortion ballot measures on the table, with most being prepared for the election of 2024. The list continues to grow as activists in states such as Montana and Arkansas hope to bring similar measures to voters in the next year.

Since the Supreme Court’s Roe decision, pro-abortion groups and activists have been gaining support from the left-wing affiliates of Planned Parenthood, the ACLU and other large organizations. They are using ballot measures to try to strengthen and grow the abortion industry.

So far, the plan has worked. Since Roe’s fall, every abortion-related measure on the ballot has been successful. Kansans rejected the ballot measure in the 2022 special election that would have declared that the state Constitution did not include the right to abortion. In the midterm elections of 2022, California, Michigan and Vermont voters codified abortion in their constitutions. Montana voters rejected a ballot initiative that would have granted rights to babies who were born alive during botched abortions. Kentucky voters also rejected a similar amendment to that in Kansas. On November 7, Ohioans voted, too, to codify their “right” to an abortion into the state constitutions through Issue 1.

The effectiveness of ballot measures as offensive weapons is enhanced by the fact that they are essentially irreversible. They change a state’s constitution, override laws passed by state legislators and can be reversed only by another ballot measure.

The funding for these measures is often provided by left-wing national organizations with large budgets, dark money groups from out of state, and billionaires who have eugenicist tendencies. They often outspend pro-life organizations twice or three times.