Three resolutions to amend the Virginia constitution passed a House of Delegates committee in November 2024 and have continued to advance.
On January 22, 2025 Virginia’s Democratic-led Senate passed constitutional amendments on abortion and voting rights. The Senate passed the resolutions in two party-line votes. Also, in a 24-15 bipartisan vote, senators passed a resolution repealing a now-defunct ban on same-sex marriage; the resolution is backed by Sen. Adam Ebbin, who has continuously been endorsed by the Virginia NOW PAC as an Equality Champion.
The three will make Virginia a fairer, stronger, safer place for women, families, those who have been on the margins, and many others.
Proposed constitutional amendments must be passed twice by lawmakers in two years, with an intervening election between the two sessions. Then the amendments can go on the ballot in a general election.
We applaud Privileges and Elections Committee Chair Delegate Marcia Price and resolution sponsors Delegate Charniele Herring, HJ1, Delegate Elizabeth Bennett-Parker, HJ2, and Delegate Mark Sickles, HJ9 for bringing these resolutions to committee in the House of Delegates.
HJ1 will enshrine reproductive freedom including abortion rights in the Constitution, HJ2 will restore voting rights of ex-felons, and HJ9 will protect same-sex marriages.
The measure to add abortion rights to the constitution passed on a 12-to-9 party-line vote, as did the resolution to automatically restore voting rights to people convicted of felonies upon their release from incarceration. But a handful of Republicans joined Democrats to support the third proposal, which would repeal the constitution’s currently defunct ban on same-sex marriage.
House Majority Leader Charniele Herring (D-Alexandria), who proposed HJ1, said it would ensure that women in Virginia do not lose the right to have an abortion following the 2022 Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe v. Wade that opened the door for states to outlaw the procedure.
She also said it would save the lives of pregnant women, noting high-profile cases in other states where restrictive abortion laws prevented them from getting emergency medical care for complicated pregnancies that were doomed or endangered their lives.
“We’re one step closer to protecting the entire continuum of reproductive health care in Virginia, from contraception to miscarriage care as well as IVF,” Herring said in an interview with The Washington Post after the hearing, referring to in vitro fertilization.