At the June meeting of the Prince William County/Manassas Park Republican Committee, the members voted to oppose the proposed amendments to the Virginia Constitution that would write into Virginia’s fundamental law an unlimited right to abortion and change Virginia’s legal view on marriage and gender. The Committee declared that these amendments would impinge on religious freedom.
This decision was made after a vigorous debate among the members. Many members pointed out that the proposed amendments were written in a deliberately deceitful manner in order to hide the impact of these amendments on the Commonwealth. This decision aligns with the values outlined in the Republican creed and the moral vision of the Republican party.
Abortion is legal in Virgina. In 2024 abortions in Virgina jumped to 39,000 from 33,000 in 2023, the largest increase of any state. This was after Roe vs Wade was overturned and under existing Virginia law.
But this is not enough for the fanatic Democratic supporters of abortion who wish to enshrine abortion in the Virginia Constitution as a secular sacrament.
The language in the abortion amendment says that there can be no restriction on a right to abortion except in the third trimester, but in the third trimester all you need is a doctor to say that it is for the health benefit, including mental health, of the patient. Translation: the abortion doctor can approve any abortion even in the third trimester up to the moment of birth, or even beyond since birth is not defined in the amendment. Nor can anyone be punished for providing abortion services no matter the circumstances. There is no protection in the amendment for conscientious objectors to abortion.
If approved by the voters, this will be the most radical abortion measure in the nation, vastly exceeding Roe vs Wade. It would severely jeopardize Virginia’s parental consent law, conscience protections for healthcare providers, health and safety standards for women, and restrictions on taxpayer-funded abortions. Catholic hospitals will be among the first targets. Most tragically of all, this extreme abortion amendment provides no protections whatsoever for preborn children.
The proposed marriage amendment also contains deceitful language to obscure potential legal dangers. Besides duplicating the U.S. Supreme Court’s Obergfell decision requiring states to license and recognize marriage between two persons of the same sex, it gratuitously throws in race and gender. Race is thrown in so they can call opponents of the amendment racists. There is no Republican opposition to the 1967 U.S. Supreme Court Loving decision striking down laws against interracial marriages. The lawyerly use of gender in the amendment’s language throws open the door to a multitude of legal consequences.
Separating the terms sex and gender in this amendment gives Constitutional status to the idea that one can be a different gender than their sex which opens the that door for the commonwealth, all its institutions, and businesses, to be forced to bow to all the things that the Democratic Party has supported – boys in girls’ sports, lockers and restrooms, sex changes for minors, eliminating parental consent, etc. All will have new-found legal support.
In addition, knowing how interpreting constitutional amendments is the plaything of liberal judges, all it needs is one judicial opinion expanding the meaning of the amendment to force religious institutions to perform same sex marriages.
All of this is why the Prince William/Manassas Park Republican Committee decided it needed to take a stand.