Grave threats are looming for the unborn in Virginia following the disastrous results of the recent 2025 elections.
Not only is anti-abortion Gov. Glenn Youngkin, R-Va., to be succeeded by a strident pro-abortion-rights advocate, Abigail Spanberger, but the Democrats' beefed-up majority in the House of Delegates makes it all but inevitable that a pro-abortion-rights amendment will appear on the ballot in 2026.
Abortion advocates in Virginia now want to put this made-up right into their constituSince the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 (1973), several states have approved these amendments that impose (not "enshrine") the right to abortion in their constitutions. As the decision in Dobbs vs. Jackson Women's Health Organization, 597 U.S. 215 (2022), points out, that is a right that historically was never recognized by any state constitution or our federal constitution.tion.
The amendment reads, "every individual has the fundamental right to reproductive freedom, including the ability to make and carry out decisions relating to one's own prenatal care, childbirth, postpartum care, contraception, abortion care, miscarriage management, and fertility care."
The state’s General Assembly passed the measure in February of this year and last week’s vote guarantees the amendment will move to the next stage of the legislative referral process, which requires the resolution to pass the General Assembly again in 2026 before ultimately appearing on the ballot in November 2026.
If voters approve this amendment and place in the constitution the so-called right to abortion, the people in Virginia and their elected representatives will no longer be able to protect the unborn through the legislative process.
These amendments are continuing to prove catastrophic in the states where they were passed.
Following the 2024 approval of an amendment in Arizona, a pre-Roe law that protected nearly all babies from abortion and another outlawing the procedure after 15 weeks were both repealed.
Colorado's pro-abortion-rights initiative last year repealed a state constitutional provision that prohibited taxpayers from funding abortion.
An equally tragic situation is unfolding in Missouri, where surgical abortions have resumed for the first time since 2022 after voters approved a pro-abortion-rights amendment last year.
But citizens there have crafted a anti-abortion amendment that will be put before voters in 2026; if passed, it would repeal the pro-abortion-rights referendum.
Yet voters in some states defeated amendments at the ballot box last year.
South Dakota defeated their pro-abortion-rights amendment last year.
Here in Florida, my home state, an amendment requiring a 60% vote to pass did not meet that threshold; as a result, babies are protected at six weeks.
A pro-abortion-rights amendment was also defeated in Nebraska, while another protecting babies from abortion, after 12 weeks was approved.
As bad as the news was from Virginia last week, all is not lost, as long as work starts right now to stop the amendment in its tracks.
The members of House of Delegates will be sworn in on Jan. 14.
Starting that day, voters must be in touch with their legislators - phone calls, letters, emails, texts, social media posts, even visits to their offices - to make their views about the amendment known.
Concrete resources, connections with state and national groups acting, and ongoing updates for the battle in Virginia as well as in other states can be found at StateBallotMeasures.org.
The outcome in Virginia is still very much in the hands of voters but the work must begin today.
Frank Pavone is an anti-abortion leader and national director of Priests for Life. Read Frank Pavone Reports — More Here.
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