Three constitutional amendments will be on the Nov. 3 ballot
Virginians will have an opportunity to vote on three constitutional amendments in November: to protect reproductive rights, voting rights, and marriage equality.
Reproductive rights
Virginia’s Constitution currently does not explicitly give citizens a right to reproductive freedom, nor does it explicitly protect or prohibit certain kinds of healthcare procedures or decisions.
Ballot question #1 asks voters whether the Constitution should be amended to:
- “protect the freedom to make personal decisions about prenatal care, childbirth, postpartum care, birth control, abortion, miscarriage management, and fertility care;
- protect doctors, nurses, and patients from being punished for these decisions;
- and 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 proposed amendment would add to the Virginia Constitution’s Bill of Rights the fundamental right to make and carry out decisions about a person’s own reproductive care with only certain, specific exceptions.
The proposed amendment specifically allows the state government to pass laws to regulate abortion care in the third trimester of pregnancy, but requires any such law to allow for abortion when it is medically needed to protect the life and health of the pregnant person or because the fetus is not viable.
Marriage equality
Ballot question #2 would remove from the Virginia Constitution’s Bill of Rights the prohibition on marriages between persons of the same sex or gender.
The proposed referendum asks:
“Should the Constitution of Virginia be amended to
- remove the ban on same-sex marriage;
- affirm that two adults may marry regardless of sex, gender, or race; and
- require all legally valid marriages to be treated equally under the law?”
If passed, the amendment would require the state to recognize and treat equally under the law any lawful marriage between two adult persons, regardless of the sex, gender, or race of either person. It would prohibit the state from denying a marriage license to two adult persons because of their sex, gender, or race.
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Marriages, civil unions, and other legal relationships with the same rights, benefits, and effects of marriage between persons of the same sex or gender are currently prohibited under Virginia’s Constitution.
This prohibition is no longer enforceable, however, as a result of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2015 decision in Obergefell v. Hodges. If the Supreme Court overturns that decision, the prohibition in the state Constitution would be enforceable again.
Voting rights
The third constitutional amendment would automatically restore convicted felons’ right to vote once they are no longer incarcerated.
Virginia’s Constitution currently provides that a person convicted of a felony loses the right to vote for the rest of their life unless the governor takes administrative action to restore that specific person’s right to vote.
A person determined by a court to be incapacitated, regardless of the underlying issue, loses the right to vote under the state’s Constitution. Only a court can restore the person’s right later.
Ballot question #3 asks:
“Should the Constitution of Virginia be amended:
- to provide for the fundamental right to vote in the Commonwealth;
- to revise the qualifications of voters so that a person convicted of a felony is not entitled to vote during his period of incarceration but is automatically invested with the right to vote upon release from incarceration; and
- to update the existing prohibition on voting by persons found to be mentally incompetent to instead apply to persons who have been found to lack the capacity to understand the act of voting?”
Early voting for the Nov. 3 election starts Sept. 18 at the Fairfax County Government Center and Oct. 22 at the satellite locations, including the Mason Government Center and Thomas Jefferson Library.
Kill babies, gay marriage, allow criminals to vote. Thanks democrats.
Protect women’s health care and adults’ private choices, and don’t disenfranchise people after their government-issued punishment ends.
Exactly.
I agree! Thank you for common sense!
You do realize that Florida GOP made it legal for criminals to vote in elections right?
Kill mother’s and disenfranchise women from their own healthcare decisions, relegating women to become vessels instead of people and, for example, providing the unborn with more rights than someone whose been raped. And, for the religious audience, the Bible declares life begins with the first breath, not a heartbeat that you can only hear with medical equipment.
Apparently, holding the self evident truth of all being created equal, such as an unalienable right of insuring domestic tranquility only applies to some.
The disenfranchisement of citizens who’ve already fully paid the previously determined price for their crimes
The Bible does not contain a single, direct statement declaring that human life begins at a newborn’s first breath.
Psalm 139:13–16: Describes God knitting a person together inside the mother’s womb.
Jeremiah 1:5: Records God stating He knew the prophet before he was formed in the womb and set him apart before birth.
Luke 1:41: Mentions John the Baptist leaping inside Elizabeth’s womb when approached by Mary carrying Jesus.
Exodus 21:22-25 views the expected child as property and the expectant mother as a person in regard to punishment for hitting a pregnant woman in a manner that ends a pregnancy.
Allow criminals to vote? Didn’t you bootlickers vote for a convicted felon to run the country. You can’t be too worried about crime.
Melissa Valbridge is 100% right Dems have lost their minds
Unlike Trumplicans, who’ve never had functioning minds.
All three sound reasonable. They should pass easily.
The amendment pertaining to felons being reinstated should read “after all requirements of their sentencing are met.”, but, too late.
Agreed. Including restitution if applicable. I’m all for ammendments 1 & 2, but 3 gets a no from me.
All of these amendments are appropriate and should certainly be approved.
Absolute no vote to all of this liberal woke crap.
The Trump party is always concerned with regulating the liberty of people they don’t agree with but hate the idea of their liberties being challenged or changed. God forbid you say anything about reasonable changes to Gun laws. Most will probably stop reading here and instantly comment something like a troll.
But you can’t reason with people who don’t desire to be reasonable. They only desire to have power and control.
All 3 of these amendments should pass because Republicans shouldn’t give a d*mn what women/families do with their own bodies, who they love/decide to marry, and incarcerated people served their time and if they are released they have the option to contribute to elections because they are still U.S. citizens. Don’t you want what’s best for your fellow Americans?
You can’t scream “cut spending, regulations, we need freedom to believe in Christianity, etc” but in the same breath “you can’t make decisions over your body, you can’t marry that person because my religion says you can’t (which it never does. And please don’t sit here and quote Leviticus (there are several things Christians pick and choose to follow and there is no “ranking of sin”, Genesis (which Sodom/Gomorrah is about violence and not consensual relations), and any other passage declaring that a particular sin is far worse than another.
Live and let live. Stop always trying to control everyone else’s life and focus on your own. This is directed towards anyone with extremist views.
Thank you. O
The reproductive question needs to be 3 questions on the ballot. If you are a Christian, you should vote no on #2, and I’m torn on #3. I’d love to know some background on why they totally lost their right to vote the rest of their lives to begin with.
Best amendments I’ve seen in 26 years as a Virginia citizen!!