Members of the Virginia General Assembly will consider a trio of constitutional amendments when they gavel into session in two months.
Democrats have wanted Virginia's state constitution to protect abortion rights for many years. So, when Republicans started calling the effort haphazard, it was met with this…
"I have to say this is not a haphazard approach."
That's House Majority Leader Charniele Herring, who introduced the amendment protecting abortion rights in Virginia.
"While I understand the political need to say haphazard. I'm sure I'll see it in a press release later," Herring says. "But this was carefully crafted."
Delegate Elizabeth Bennett-Parker is a Democrat from Alexandria who has an amendment ditching Virginia's practice of requiring the governor to restore voting rights for people convicted of felonies.
"The disenfranchisement of people with felony convictions is a relic of Virginia's Jim Crow past and was intentionally inserted into the 1902 Virginia Constitution to disenfranchise as many Black voters as possible," the Democrat says.
And Delegate Mark Sickles of Fairfax County has an amendment to undo the amendment prohibiting gay marriage voters approved back in 2006.
"I'm asking that to put this before the voters 20 years after it was enacted to see where we stand on it now," Sickles says. "I feel sure that it will be repealed."
All three of those amendments would have to go through many steps before being added to the state Constitution, including being approved by voters in November 2026.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
