Judge Jack Hurley of the Tazewell Circuit Court has set a November 13 hearing on a challenge to Virginia’s proposed abortion amendment. The amendment is on the ballot on Election Day. The Founding Freedom Law Center filed the lawsuit and is asking the court to invalidate the amendment if it passes, citing a procedural error and misleading ballot language.
The ballot question asks whether the Constitution of Virginia should be amended to protect decisions about prenatal care, childbirth, postpartum care, birth control, abortion, miscarriage management, and fertility care; protect doctors, nurses, and patients from punishment for those decisions; and allow restrictions on abortion in the third trimester except when the patient’s health is at risk or the pregnancy cannot survive.
The lawsuit says the ballot language wrongly presents the amendment as protecting an existing right instead of creating one. It argues that the language fails to tell voters they are being asked to approve a near-absolute “fundamental right to reproductive freedom.” The lawsuit also says required copies of the ballot language were not sent to circuit court clerks to be posted on courthouse doors at least three months before the general election.
The challenge says the amendment would affect more than abortion. It says the measure would “end or severely limit” Virginia’s ability to prohibit statutory rape and regulate the assisted reproductive technology industry. The lawsuit also seeks to prevent certification of election results in favor of the amendment if the court finds the process invalid.
Plaintiff Meagan Kade said, “We’re not asking the court to decide one outcome over another. We’re asking that the question be posed to voters honestly, and then let the citizens decide.” For voters across the country, the case shows why clear ballot language matters when a state asks citizens to change its constitution on the sanctity of life and the rights of unborn children.
