Lawsuit seeks to remove abortion amendment from 2026 Virginia ballot
A new lawsuit in Virginia is seeking to remove a proposed constitutional amendment that would create a right to abortion from this year’s ballot.
The conservative law firm the Liberty Counsel filed a complaint last week in the Circuit Court of Bedford County, Virginia, on behalf of Bedford County Board of Supervisors member Charla Bansley.
Defendants named in the lawsuit include Virginia House of Delegates Clerk G. Paul Nardo, Virginia Elections Commissioner Steven Koski, the Virginia State Board of Elections, the Virginia Department of Elections, Bedford County Registrar of Elections Barbara Gunter, and Bedford County Circuit Court Clerk Judy Reynolds.
The complaint alleges that defendants failed to properly follow the procedure when passing the abortion amendment and putting it on the November ballot for voters to consider.
The allege steps missed include failure to distribute the proposal to the clerks of every circuit court in the state and failure to have the proposed amendment posted three months before the next intervening House of Delegates election.
The complaint accuses the defendants of violating Virginia Code and the Virginia state constitution, and asked the court to prevent the defendants from printing 2026 ballots with the amendment included.
“Virginia’s House Joint Resolution 1 cannot legally appear on the ballot,” said Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver in a statement released Wednesday.
“This measure is invalid because the General Assembly advanced it to a second legislative vote without completing the constitutionally mandated notice and posting requirements that must occur after its first passage.”
Staver stated that “any misstep” in the state constitutional amendment procedure “undermines the integrity of the amendment process and can interfere with the will of the voters.”
In 2025, Virginia lawmakers advanced a proposed amendment that would create a “Fundamental Right to Reproductive Freedom." In January, the Democrat-controlled General Assembly approved House Joint Resolution 1, which completed the process for adding the proposal to the 2026 November ballot.
Democrat Sen. Jennifer Boysko of Fairfax, who sponsored the upper chamber’s version of the resolution, told the Virginia Mercury that the lawsuit is “a frivolous attempt to silence Virginia voters."
The proposed amendment declares that "every individual has the fundamental right to reproductive freedom, including the ability to make and carry out decisions relating to one's own prenatal care, childbirth, postpartum care, contraception, abortion care, miscarriage management, and fertility care.”
"An individual's right to reproductive freedom shall not be, directly or indirectly, denied, burdened, or infringed upon unless justified by a compelling state interest achieved by the least restrictive means," states the proposed amendment.
While the proposed amendment also said that "the Commonwealth may regulate the provision of abortion care in the third trimester," it bans the regulation of abortion in cases where a physician determines it is necessary to "protect the life or physical or mental health of the pregnant individual" or because "the fetus is not viable."
The final votes for the proposal fell along party lines, with the House of Delegates approving it in a 64-34 vote while the state Senate approved the resolution in a 21-18 vote.
At present, Virginia is the only state in the South not to pass additional restrictions on abortion since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022.
