Virginia voters will decide on Tuesday, November 3, 2026, whether to add a broad right to reproductive freedom to the state constitution, according to a voter guide published by the Virginia Department of Elections and reported by Charisma News.

The ballot question asks voters: “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?”

At present, the voter guide explains, the Virginia Constitution does not explicitly provide a right to reproductive freedom, nor does it explicitly protect or prohibit certain kinds of health care procedures or decisions. The proposed amendment would add that right to the constitution’s Bill of Rights, with only certain specific exceptions.

Under the proposal, the state government could still pass laws regulating abortion care in the third trimester of pregnancy. Any such law, however, would have to allow abortion care when it is medically needed to protect the life and health of the pregnant person, or because the fetus is not viable, according to the guide.

The question matters well beyond one election cycle. A constitutional amendment, unlike an ordinary statute, cannot be changed by a later legislature acting alone; it would set the framework within which future Virginia lawmakers must work on questions of prenatal care, childbirth, birth control, and abortion.

For Christians who hold that every unborn child bears the image of God, the vote is a moment of sober consequence. The language of the amendment frames the issue as one of personal freedom and protection from punishment. A biblical view of the matter asks a prior question: whose life is at stake, and what does God require of a society toward the most vulnerable among us?

Virginia voters will also decide a second constitutional question on the same ballot. Question 3 would rewrite voter qualification rules in Article II of the constitution, automatically restoring voting rights to people convicted of felonies after their release from incarceration, without requiring them to apply for restoration by the governor. It would also require a specific finding by a court that a person does not understand the act of voting before that person’s right to vote could be taken away.

Both measures, if approved, would reshape Virginia’s constitution for years to come. The outcome will be watched closely by other states considering similar amendments, and by churches and ministries that serve mothers, fathers, and unborn children in Virginia and beyond.

The original report, from American Faith, was reposted by Charisma News with permission.