At the Arlington piercing studio where we take our girls, a 16-year-old cannot have her ears pierced unless a parent or guardian is in the room with a government photo ID. That is the rule for an earlobe. On November 3, Question 1 will ask Virginia voters to add a “fundamental right to reproductive freedom” into the state constitution’s Bill of Rights for every “individual,” with no age limit, and to forbid the state from penalizing anyone who aids or assists in an abortion, so long as that individual “voluntarily consents.” The daughter whose ear cannot be pierced without a parent could, under the amendment, have an abortion without one.
Virginia already permits abortion — the intentional killing of unborn children — through the second trimester. Question 1 would constitutionalize and expand this grave injustice, stripping away the remaining restraints.
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