When voters go to the polls in Virginia this November, they’ll face three ballot questions that seek to amend the state’s constitution. Two of them revolve around crucial worldview and family issues.
The left is pushing for “yes” votes on these questions, of course. And the wording of the ballot questions contains the type of phrasing that the left loves to use to make their positions seem reasonable and normal.
Question 1 centers on a “right to reproductive freedom.” Naturally, you and I read that to mean unfettered abortion, but the question tries to sound as anodyne as possible:
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?
Virginia already allows abortion up to one day short of 27 weeks, but this amendment would enshrine even later abortion into the state constitution. It would also make pro-life initiatives practically impossible in the commonwealth. Proponents of the measure claim that it protects contraception, fertility treatment, and miscarriage care as well as abortion.
“The life of the unborn is categorically excluded from consideration as a state interest; so is protecting the patient from fraud or coercion — but even measures essential to protect patient health are prohibited if they would infringe on the patient’s ‘autonomous decision making,’” noted the editors of National Review in an editorial earlier this month. “This is worse than Orwellian; it is Canadian.”
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Question 2 is another ballot referendum that sounds deceptively non-threatening. It reads, “Should the Constitution of Virginia be amended to (i) remove the ban on same-sex marriage; (ii) affirm that two adults may marry regardless of sex, gender, or race; and (iii) require all legally valid marriages to be treated equally under the law?”
You’re probably thinking that this is a moot point in a post-Obergefell society, but the left has tried to fearmonger about a Dobbs-style movement to overturn Obergefell. Don’t overlook that the question also addresses race; that’s another fearmongering tactic. Leftists want their fellow travelers to think that conservatives are going to try to overturn Loving v. Virginia at some point.
Side note: Question 3 would restore a felon’s voting rights when he or she completes prison time. Yep. Virginia Democrats went there.
A group called Pastors of Virginia has released an open letter asking Virginia voters to vote no on Questions 1 and 2. The signatories state in the opening paragraphs: “As citizens of Virginia, we are under moral obligation to vote for the good of our Commonwealth. Truly, this is what commonwealth means, for we are bound together here for one another’s common good. Let us seek one another’s true good and not mark our identity with the deprivations that these amendments would bring to the Constitution of Virginia.”
“We’ve written this letter as an appeal to Virginia voters,” said Pastor Ben Purves of Occoquan Bible Church in Woodbridge, Va. “We are encouraged by the growing number of pastors that have signed it and signatures continue to be added each day.”
The stakes are pretty straightforward because these ballot questions touch on fundamental creation-order issues. Question 1 seeks to take away the right to life for untold numbers of future Virginians in the womb, while Question 2 pursues redefining marriage away from the tried-and-true biblical standard.
Purves is encouraged that pastors are taking an interest in bringing these issues to the forefront on the road to November.
“We’re already seeing this letter shared in churches throughout Virginia, and we’re encouraging pastors to share it with local news outlets in their communities,” he said. “It is our prayer that Virginians will awake to the dangers of these amendments and that they will be soundly defeated at the ballot box.”
The pastors who drafted and signed the letter not only hope to bring these issues to light, but they also want Virginians to see the light of Jesus:
We invite you to seek to know the Lord, to turn from your sin, and to set your hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. If you don’t have a Bible, we encourage you to pick one up and read the Gospel of John. If you don’t go to church, we invite you to begin and to visit one of the churches listed below on a Sunday morning as we gather to worship our Lord.
Let us pray for and seek the good of Virginia together, and let us vote no on Amendments 1 and 2.
May God give grace to the Commonwealth.
If you’re a voter in Virginia, please read the open letter, vote no on both questions — and pray. Share the letter with your pastor, elders, and/or overseers and bishops, and encourage them to add their signatures to it. It’s going to take bravery for Virginians to defeat these assaults on creation order.
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