Virginia Voters
Two questions.
Neither says what it does.
Vote NO on ballot questions 1 & 3
Question 1 · Abortion
Abortion through all nine months
It says it allows third-trimester limits, then forbids enforcing them.
The text
“In no circumstance shall the Commonwealth prohibit an abortion that in the
professional judgment of a physician is medically indicated to protect the life
or physical or mental health of the pregnant individual.”
One doctor. Mental health undefined. No review. A limit that can be written but
never applied is not a limit.
HJ 1, proposed Art. I § 11-A
Today three doctors must sign off for medical safety. This cuts it to one.
What changes
Virginia law currently requires the physician plus two consulting physicians to certify,
in a hospital record, that the pregnancy would cause death or
“substantially and irremediably impair” health.
Question 1 replaces all of it with one doctor - the same one performing
the procedure.
Va. Code § 18.2-74
It claims to protect prenatal care while removing the doctors who safeguard it.
Why
The summary opens with prenatal care, childbirth and fertility care - six
uncontroversial items that make the seventh sound like the rest.
But the same amendment strips the independent medical review that stands
between a mother and a late-term decision made by a single interested physician.
Fewer doctors checking that judgment puts both mother and child at greater risk.
Compare HJ 1 with Va. Code § 18.2-74
Question 3 · Voting
Violent felons voting on day one
No felony is excluded. The amendment names none.
The text
“A person convicted of a felony … is automatically invested with the
right to vote upon release from incarceration.”
Murder, rape, child abuse - all of it. Excluding violent offenses would
have taken one clause. There isn't one.
Proposed amendment to Art. II § 1
Rights return when they walk out, not when the sentence ends.
What it skips
The trigger is release from incarceration - which for many people lands in
the middle of a sentence.
No mention of parole. No mention of probation. No mention of restitution owed
to victims. Some news coverage says those must be completed first. The text does not
say that.
Proposed amendment to Art. II § 1
A statute can be fixed next year. This cannot.
What a yes vote locks in
Undoing a constitutional amendment takes two separately elected General Assemblies
and another statewide vote - years.
A no vote costs almost nothing. These questions can return in two years, written
properly. A yes vote is close to permanent.
Va. Const. Art. XII
Sources:
HJ 1 full text ·
Va. Code § 18.2-74 ·
VA Dept. of Elections
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