Virginians one step closer to voting on abortion, voting rights, and gay marriage constitutional amendments

Virginia House committee advances three constitutional amendments on abortion, voting rights, and marriage equality.

A Democratic-controlled Virginia House of Delegates committee advanced a resolution Wednesday to enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution along with two other measures on voting rights and marriage equality. 

The abortion rights constitutional amendment resolution introduced by Democrat Del. Charniele Herring would make reproductive freedom a fundamental right in the state constitution and include protection for prenatal care, childbirth, postpartum care, contraception, abortion care, miscarriage management, and fertility care.

Abortion is legal in Virginia, but advocates view adding abortion rights to the state’s constitution as a necessary step in the wake of the US Supreme Court taking away the federal right to abortion with the overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022. Since then Republicans in states like Idaho and South Carolina have enacted harsh abortion restrictions that have fatal consequences for women. 

The government should not be getting involved with healthcare decisions or making medical providers feel like they can’t do their jobs, Herring said at Wednesday’s committee meeting. 

“We have in Virginia OBGYN deserts,” Herring said. “We have practitioners that are not practicing anymore because we as politicians have decided we’re going to determine how to treat a patient, and we’re not even in the room with them. We don’t do that with cancer.”

Republicans tried and failed to kill Herring’s resolution. Some objected to it on procedural grounds, accusing Democrats of trying to rush the resolution through and taking it up outside of the General Assembly session, and others simply disagreed that abortion should be protected. 

“This is something that I personally believe should be done in full session when everyone’s paying attention,” said Del. Israel O’Quinn, a Republican.

But Del. Marcia “Cia” Price, who chairs the House Privileges and Elections Committee, pushed back on those claims, pointing out that the resolution was months in the making, were carried over from a previous session, and that numerous members of the public were able to have their voices heard. 

“We have not only heard from people here in this room, but also were allowed to hear from people online,” Price said. “And there have been hundreds, hundreds of emails that we have gotten.”

In addition to the abortion rights amendment, the committee passed a voting rights amendment resolution that would automatically give people convicted of a felony the right to vote after they have served their time and returned to society. Currently, these people have to have their right to vote restored by the governor.

Democratic lawmakers and advocates support the constitutional amendment as a means of ending an antiquated policy rooted in the racist goal of disenfranchising Black people from voting. They criticized the current process as being inconsistent and opaque. 

The committee also advanced a marriage equality amendment that would repeal the defunct ban on same-sex marriage that’s still in Virginia’s state constitution. The US Supreme Court in 2015 ruled that gay marriage was legal, which struck down state marriage bans. 

The resolutions to amend Virginia’s constitution still have a long way to go before they become law. They must pass in the state legislature twice with an election for the House of Delegates in between. If that happens, then the measure goes to the voters in a statewide referendum. 

The next General Assembly session starts in January, and the House of Delegates is up for election in 2025.