Virginia's November Vote and the Sanctity of Life

"Open your mouth for the mute,
for the rights of all who are destitute.
Open your mouth, judge righteously,
defend the rights of the poor and needy.”
—Proverbs 31:8–9

This November, Virginians will vote on several proposed changes to our state Constitution, including one that would establish a constitutional right to abortion. The amendment would add a new “fundamental right to reproductive freedom” to Article I of the Virginia Constitution.

Not every political question is merely political. Some involve moral truths about which Scripture speaks clearly. That is certainly true when it comes to vulnerable human life. Political attention may rise and fall, but Christian concern for life in the womb cannot rise and fall with an election cycle. It requires our attention and, when necessary, our action.

Quite frankly, I was stunned when I read what is being proposed.

The proposed amendment does more than establish a policy on abortion. It enshrines abortion into Virginia’s Constitution, shaping future legislation in a way that would be very difficult to change. That makes it absolutely critical for us to understand what is being proposed, take it seriously, and then talk about it. 

The General Assembly has approved the amendment, but it cannot become part of Virginia’s Constitution unless we, the voters of Virginia, ratify it at the ballot box in November.

There are three constitutional amendments proposed on the Virginia ballot this November. Two of them, concerning abortion and marriage, raise particularly significant moral questions for Christians. Because of the importance of the first ballot item, I want to devote this article primarily to it and hope to address the marriage amendment separately. 

Question 1: A Constitutional Right to “Reproductive Freedom” 

The first constitutional amendment we will be asked to consider would grant anyone in Virginia what it calls “a fundamental right to reproductive freedom.” While there may be things included in that language that are matters of wisdom and prudence, there is one thing in particular that is fundamentally at odds with a biblical understanding of human life: the establishment of abortion as a constitutional right.

While the amendment adds some language of limitation around abortion, let’s not fool ourselves: the practical result will be unfettered access to abortion and the destruction of unborn life. A Yes vote would enshrine abortion within Virginia’s Bill of Rights.

We should understand the significance of this because we have already had a long history of abortion being treated as a constitutional right. In 1973, Roe v. Wade established a federal constitutional right to abortion and sharply limited what states could do to protect unborn life. It took nearly fifty years before the Supreme Court overturned Roe in the Dobbs decision of 2022 and returned substantial authority over abortion law to the states.

And now, four years later, the new leadership controlling Virginia’s state government is asking Virginians to change our own state Constitution to enshrine this “right.”

That is profoundly troubling. A relatively narrow majority of legislators and voters can use the constitutional process to bind future generations of Virginians to a constitutional right to abortion. Once abortion is established as a fundamental constitutional right, future legislatures will have to operate underneath that right. Even Virginians who might someday want reasonable or moderate protections for unborn children would be limited in what they could enact, severely restricting future efforts to protect the lives of these vulnerable children in the womb. 

But the deepest problem with this amendment is not constitutional. It is moral. 

Psalm 139:13–16 tells us that God knits us together in our mother’s womb. The child in the womb is not merely tissue or a “potential” human being. This is human life, created by God and bearing his image. Genesis 9:6 grounds the extraordinary value of human life in precisely this truth: that God made that little person in his own image. The unborn child is also extraordinarily vulnerable, utterly dependent upon others and unable to speak in his or her own defense. 

In thinking about this, we want to challenge either-or thinking and the assumption that an unwanted pregnancy requires the destruction of one life in order to care for another. Many who fight for abortion access do so for the sake of women, which is not a bad motivation. We should never forget that women can also find themselves in frightening, painful, and difficult circumstances. They need compassion, help, and care. But we must not respond to the vulnerability of one person by destroying another vulnerable human life. We must believe that we can care for the mother while also recognizing the God-given dignity of her unborn child. These are not competing responsibilities. We can and must do both. Christians and pregnancy-care ministries have demonstrated this for many years. 

There is also a sobering lesson from the years since the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision. Many in the pro-life community hoped that overturning Roe would lead to a dramatic reduction in abortion. It seemed like a wonderful victory for human life and dignity. But instead of a reduction, abortion has remained widespread and even grown, aided particularly by medication abortion and telehealth. This is an important reminder that while we should work through our political and legal systems to recognize the sanctity of human life, we must never forget the importance of persuading the human heart of the value of life. 

That is an important reminder for us. A vote cannot solve the abortion problem. Laws matter because human lives matter, but changing a law does not change a human heart. If we are to be faithful as a church, we will have to work in both practical and spiritual ways. We should protect vulnerable human life, care for women and families facing difficult pregnancies, cultivate a culture in which children are welcomed and valued, and proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ, which alone can change the human heart. 

For these reasons, I believe Christians should give very serious attention to Question 1 before voting this November.  

Pray about it. Understand what is actually being proposed, and talk with others about what is at stake. Whatever happens in November will reach far beyond one election. The question before Virginia concerns what protection our Constitution will give to unborn human life and what authority future generations will retain to protect it. Any constitutional protection of abortion must be weighed against the dignity Scripture gives to life in the womb. 

There are two other proposed constitutional amendments on the ballot. One concerns the definition and recognition of marriage, and the other concerns restoration of voting rights following felony convictions. The marriage amendment in particular deserves careful biblical consideration, and I hope to address it separately rather than giving another important issue only a few paragraphs here.