Almost immediately upon taking power in the state legislature and governor’s mansion, Virginia Democrats set about advancing their radical agenda. While a controversial, hyper-partisan redistricting measure did not survive judicial review, the Democrats now face a new legal challenge against an equally extreme agenda item. The Founding Freedoms Law Center (FFLC), the legal arm of The Family Foundation of Virginia, filed a lawsuit late last month against a constitutional amendment proposed by Virginia Democrats to enshrine a “right” to abortion in Old Dominion’s constitution.

According to the lawsuit, the ballot language that will appear before voters relating to the proposed amendment is vague and even deceptive and “completely fails to inform the voters that the proposed amendment, due to its overwhelming breadth, would overturn many significant aspects of Virginia regulatory authority,” including terminating parental consent and notification requirements for minors to seek abortions or sterilization, facilitating the rape of minors, and potentially even allowing non-licensed, non-medical professionals to commit abortions.

“The approved ballot language … profoundly misleads by omission and misrepresentation. As such, it cannot suffice to satisfy the requirement that the proposed amendment be appropriately ‘submit[ted]’ to the people for a vote, as required by” Virginia’s constitution, the lawsuit charges. “Also, because of its misleading character, it violates the unenumerated right of the people to have their elections conducted in a nondeceptive manner…”

The ballot language associated with the proposed constitutional amendment will ask 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?”

“This amendment is the most consequential question Virginians will face in a generation, and they are being asked to vote on it without being told the truth about what it does,” said Family Foundation of Virginia President Victoria Cobb in a statement. “The Family Foundation is in court because the legislature failed in its duty to ask the question honestly, and Virginians deserve better than a rigged ballot.”

In a press conference announcing the filing of the lawsuit, Cobb charged that the ballot language “is not just slanted, it’s deceptive, and we’re asking the courts to make them tell the truth.” She added, “This is not the first time we’ve seen this playbook,” comparing the deceptive language linked to the proposed abortion amendment to the language the Democrats used in their redistricting push. That ballot question asked Virginia voters to “restore fairness” to the state’s congressional district maps — by reversing a 2016 constitutional amendment establishing a non-partisan redistricting commission and stripping Republicans of four seats in the U.S. House of Representatives to hand Democrats 10 of the 11 slots on Virginia’s congressional delegation. “Well, now they’re running the very same play on the abortion amendment,” Cobb observed. “The language voters will see when they walk into the voting booth in November is engineered to obscure what this amendment actually does.”

“Let me say it plainly, what the voters are not being told: this amendment would enshrine into the Virginia Constitution an absolute right to abortion at any time, for any reason, performed by anyone with no meaningful safety standards,” Cobb clarified. “It would create the most radical abortion regime anywhere in the United States.”

“We are not asking a court to take this question off the ballot. We are asking the court to do what only a court can do, declare that the ballot language as written is unconstitutional, and to permanently enjoin enforcement of the amendment if it passes,” added FFLC Executive Director and Chief Counsel Josh Hetzler. “Proposed constitutional amendments must be explained to voters neutrally and accurately. The question Virginians will be handed in November fails that test.”

FFLC filed the lawsuit on behalf of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS), the Virginia Medical Freedom Alliance (VAMFA), and Meagan Kade, a Tazewell County resident and Bluefield Town Council member. The lawsuit was filed in the Tazewell County Circuit Court, the same court that previously blocked the Democrats’ redistricting push.

As FRC’s Mary Szoch told The Washington Stand, “The abortion industry is built on lies and deceit. Abortionists tell women that an unborn child is simply a clump of cells. They claim that after an abortion, the mother won’t feel any pain or suffering. And, now,” she continued, “abortionists are telling voters that they are merely voting for reproductive freedom, when really, they are voting to eliminate parental notification, remove the ability to enforce statutory rape laws, allow anyone to perform an abortion, remove any health standards for abortion facilities, and remove any ability to regulate surrogacy or cloning. These lies must be exposed. Let’s pray that the lawsuit challenging the Virginia abortion amendment is successful.”