The government wants to take over more of mom and dad’s jobs; this time, it is a matter of life and death. The proposed “Fundamental Right to Reproductive Freedom” is an amendment to the Virginia Constitution that, if approved, would enshrine abortion at any age and gestational stage as a fundamental right that shall not be “denied, burdened or infringed upon.”
While parents are considered responsible parties by schools, courts, and insurance companies regarding their children’s health and well-being, their rights to decision-making on behalf of their underage children would be stripped away by this amendment. Parents of underaged children are not even mentioned. They are therefore sidelined and ignored in favor of the “individual’s autonomous decision making.” Does it strike you as odd that a girl may not be able to drive, but she would be able to get an abortion without her parents’ approval or notification, based on this “fundamental right?”
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As an obstetrics nurse for 24 years, I am no stranger to the difficulties of unmasking pressure and coercion when it comes to the decision to end a pregnancy. An article from the Charlotte Lozier Institute titled “Hidden Epidemic: Nearly 70% of Abortions are Coerced, Unwanted or Inconsistent with Women’s Preferences” examines the issue. The title says it all.
But the amendment would make the state the final arbiter of what happens with your child. “A compelling state interest” that might infringe upon this “right” is “compelling only when it is to ensure the health of an individual seeking care.” I thought making decisions for your child’s health was your duty and privilege as a parent!
The proposed amendment also states that “the Commonwealth shall not discriminate in the protection or enforcement of this fundamental right.” So, does that mean you will be prosecuted if you try to stop this heinous process? If you are denying the child’s “constitutional right,” that’s exactly what it would mean.
Not only do parents possibly get cast as the “bad guys” in this whole scenario, but if a third agent gets abortion pills online, through the mail, and gives them to a young woman, they will not be prosecuted, no matter what subsequently happens. Don’t believe me? Read the amendment.
Furthermore, while the amendment tries to give lip service to “accepted clinical standards of care,” that prospect is dubious. When a surgical abortion can be done surreptitiously during school hours, or a medication abortion can be accomplished at home alone, what kind of standards are possible?
Surgical abortion has come under fire recently by none other than the New York Times. In an article describing the findings, Dr. Ingrid Skop writes of “poorly equipped, unsanitary, and understaffed facilities. A sewage leak caused patients to vomit. Positive sexually transmitted infection results went unreported.” This was despite Planned Parenthood’s “over $2 billion in income” and the funneling of nearly $40 million to its chosen candidates in the 2024 election cycle.
In Virginia, statistics on abortion clinic protocol violations are hard to come by. The Virginia Department of Health lost regulatory authority over first-trimester abortion facilities in 2019 thanks to legislation by the General Assembly, the department’s Office of Licensure and Certification told me.
Medical abortion is no better. While medical abortion protocols have been relaxed to the point that the Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategies have been watered down, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and other medical entities want to do away with them altogether. They state that the pills are “extremely safe,” but where are the studies that prove that? Recording data on complications is voluntary. If no data is being kept, how do we really know if mifepristone is safe?
The Ethics and Public Policy Center published a study on April 28 titled, “The Abortion Pill Harms Women: Insurance Data Reveals One in Ten Patients Experiences a Serious Adverse Event.” Because the authors had ironclad data in the form of insurance charges after medically prescribed mifepristone, they concluded that “mifepristone abortion, as currently practiced in the US, is considerably more dangerous to women than is represented on the FDA-approved drug label.”
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And that doesn’t even include the fact that Canada did not approve mifepristone in 2000 as planned because of a death during clinical trials of Clostridium sordellii-induced toxic shock syndrome. Why? Mifepristone reduces the body’s ability to check for infection of the uterus with this organism. Since it doesn’t spike a fever or enter the bloodstream, emergency room physicians can miss it until it is too late.
The only way to avert this cataclysm is to oppose this amendment vigorously. In the 2025 election, Virginians must elect candidates to the House of Delegates who will prioritize the defeat of this tyrannical legislative overreach. It is a matter of life and death.
Rosemary Antunes, a registered nurse, practiced as a labor and delivery nurse in Virginia and Connecticut.
