\n<\/p>\n
The Virginia state senate voted on Friday to let voters decide whether to amend the state\u2019s constitution to protect abortion rights, in a move that will make Virginia at least the third state in 2026 to vote on the controversial topic.<\/p>\n
The state legislature first approved the proposed amendment in early 2025, but Virginia law dictates that suggested constitutional amendments must pass in two consecutive state legislatures. The state house of delegates approved the 2026 version of the amendment earlier this week.<\/p>\n
Democrats control both chambers of the legislature. Abigail Spanberger, a Democrat, flipped the governor\u2019s mansion in November, in part due to her stalwart support for abortion rights.<\/p>\n
After the US supreme court overturned Roe v Wade in 2022, unleashing a wave of state-level abortion bans, Virginia has become a critical source of abortion access \u2013 especially for people fleeing southern bans. Before Roe\u2019s fall, Virginia-based providers performed fewer than 2,500 abortion per month, according to data from #WeCount, a research project that tracks abortion provision. By June 2025, providers in Virginia were performing closer to 3,500 abortions each month.<\/p>\n
If it passes in November, Virginia\u2019s constitution will recognize that \u201cevery individual has the fundamental right to reproductive freedom, including the ability to make and carry out decisions relating to one\u2019s own prenatal care\u201d. However, the state may still regulate access to the procedure in the third trimester of pregnancy.<\/p>\n
Roe\u2019s demise also led abortion rights supporters to champion ballot measures to protect access to the procedure. Missouri and Nevada are already set to vote on abortion-related measures this year, while activists are hoping to secure further measures in Idaho, Montana, Nebraska and Oregon. Idaho and Oregon\u2019s proposed measures would \u2013 like Virginia\u2019s \u2013 protect abortion access, while Nebraska and Montana\u2019s measures would eliminate it.<\/p>\n
Missouri\u2019s measure will probably be among the most heated contests of the 2026 election. In 2024, voters in the state passed a measure that protected abortion rights and rescinded the state\u2019s near-total abortion ban. However, this year, abortion opponents are asking voters to rescind that measure\u2019s results and restore the state\u2019s ban.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Virginia state senate voted on Friday to let voters decide whether to amend the state\u2019s constitution to protect abortion rights, in a move that will make Virginia at least the third state in 2026 to vote on the controversial topic. The state legislature first approved the proposed amendment in early 2025, but Virginia law<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":41928,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[5457,3288,12424,4124,702,1345,2980],"class_list":{"0":"post-41927","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-abortion","9":"tag-amendment","10":"tag-decide","11":"tag-protect","12":"tag-rights","13":"tag-virginia","14":"tag-voters"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41927","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=41927"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41927\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/41928"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=41927"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=41927"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=41927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}