TAZEWELL, Va. (CN) - A pair of medical advocacy groups and a town council member challenged a proposed Virginia constitutional amendment Thursday that would guarantee abortion rights.
The plaintiffs - the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, the Virginia Medical Freedom Alliance and Meagan Kade, a Bluefield Town Council member - argue the ballot question that voters will ponder this fall fails to inform voters of the amendment's broad impact.
"It would recreate the most radical abortion regime anywhere in the United States," Victoria Cobb, president of the Family Foundation of Virginia, a conservative interest group, said at a press conference. "If voters knew what was actually in this amendment, they would not vote for it."
Founding Freedom Law Center, the legal arm of the Family Foundation of Virginia, filed the suit on behalf of the plaintiffs against the state board of elections, the Virginia Department of Elections, the clerks of the House of Delegates and Tazewell Circuit Court and the Tazewell general registrar. The plaintiffs contend the proposed ballot language is misleading.
The proposed ballot question asks: "Should the Constitution of Virginia be amended to (i) protect the freedom to make personal decisions about prenatal care, childbirth, postpartum care, birth control, abortion, miscarriage management, and fertility care; (ii) protect doctors, nurses, and patients from being punished for these decisions; and (iii) allow for restrictions on access to abortion during the third trimester of pregnancy except when the patient's health is at risk or the pregnancy cannot survive?"
The plaintiffs claim the question fails to inform voters that the amendment would, in their words, eliminate parental notifications and consent before a minor obtains an abortion or gender-affirming surgery; strip Virginia of its ability to enforce statutory rape laws, by enshrining a right to consensual sexual activity without age limits; allow those without liscnenses to perform abortions with full immunity from state penalties; end Vigrinia's ability to set health standards for abortion facilities; and block the state regulating commercial surrogacy.
"The law is clear, proposed constitutional amendments placed on the ballot must be explained in a neutral manner," Founding Freedom Law Center attorney Josh Hetzler said at the press conference. "The question posed to the voters cannot be deceptive or fraudulent, but this abortion amendment ballot language deceives voters on issues of major importance."
Proponents of the amendment have argued it wouldn't negate the safeguards the state already has in place for abortion care.
"Virginians have made it clear time and again that we support reproductive freedom and do not want our healthcare controlled by politicians," state Senator Jennifer Boysko, who carried the Senate cognate of the amendment, said in a statement. "In November, voters will be able to enshrine one of our most essential freedoms in Virginia's Constitution."
The plaintiffs claim the amendment's status as part of the state constitution means it trumps any existing laws and that its language violates the Virginia Constitution's amendment submission clause, which requires ballot language to describe the proposed amendment accurately.
"I cannot stand by and allow my vote and the votes of many other Virginians to be effectively canceled out because the General Assembly has deliberately chosen to materially misrepresent the effects of the so-called 'reproductive freedom amendment,'" Kade said at the press conference. "I have a right to participate in a constitutional referendum process free from fraud."
The plaintiffs seek a declaration that the language is misleading and injunctive relief that preempts the certification of the amendment regardless of the outcome of the votes.
The state constitution requires the General Assembly to give voters two opportunities to vote on representation before implementing any amendments. A local politician from Bedford County, Virginia, sued in March, claiming the legislature failed to comply with the procedure requiring circuit court clerks to post proposed amendments three months before the 2025 House of Delegates election. Democrats passed a bill that retroactively removed the part of the state code requiring the three-month disclosure.
The plaintiffs filed the lawsuit in rural Tazewell County in southwestern Virginia, over 220 miles from Richmond, the state's capital. Tazewell has also served as the home base for two challenges to an amendment that allows Democrats to redraw congressional lines. The National Republican Congressional Committee and Virginia-based Republican U.S. Representatives Ben Cline and Morgan Griffith filed a similar challenge to the redistricting amendment, focusing on its ballot language. The Supreme Court of Virginia heard arguments Monday for another challenge to the redistricting amendment based on procedural grounds.
Virginia voters approved the amendment through a referendum on April 22, but the Virginia Department of Elections is awaiting the Supreme Court of Virginia's ruling on challenges to the certification of the results.
Advocates among the Democrats argue that the abortion amendment is necessary following the United States Supreme Court's 2022 decision that overruled Roe v. Wade, which had provided a federal right to abortion.
"Reproductive healthcare is healthcare. Opponents of this constitutional amendment know that Virginians want their reproductive rights protected and will vote yes, which is why they are attempting to pre-emptively silence the voices of voters everywhere," Attorney General Jay Jones said in a statement. "As attorney general, I will not stand for it."
Voters will also decide on proposed amendments that automatically restore voting rights to disenfranchised felons and remove an antiquated law banning same-sex marriage.
"This challenge to the proposed reproductive freedom amendment is just a desperate attempt to disrupt the democratic process and override the will of the voters," Boysko said. "The people will make their voices heard on Election Day."
Source: Courthouse News Service
