Pro-Life Stakes and Catholic Responsibility in Virginia

          Virginians go to the polls November 4 to elect a governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, and lower house of the state legislature.  The stakes could not be higher.

          With incumbent Republican Glenn Youngkin barred from another term, the contest comes down to Republican Lieutenant Governor Winsome Earle-Sears and former Democrat Congresswoman Abigail Spanberger.  

          Earle-Sears has been consistently pro-life.  Spanberger, who pledges support for “reproductive freedom,” supports abortion-on-demand through birth.  How do we know?

          It’s true that Spanberger has generally tried to avoid saying anything at all controversial in the campaign.  But she’s announced herself fully behind the state Constitutional amendment Virginia Democrats have already once approved that would write abortion-on-demand into Virginia’s Constitution, with no provision for parental involvement involving a minor’s abortion (which is current Virginia law).  In Virginia, constitutional amendments must be voted upon twice by the Legislature, with one election between those votes, before going to public referendum.  With Tuesday’s election and if a Democratic majority returns to Richmond, the amendment will get its second approval next year to make the November 2026 ballot.

          A scandal broke this summer in Fairfax County, just west of Washington.  It’s alleged that Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS), through a school employee, facilitated two minors obtaining abortions without parental consent.  It’s unclear who paid for them.  The scandal is still being investigated because the country district attorney, a Democrat, has done nothing about it. 

          Spanberger has largely kept mum on the Fairfax controversy, carefully parsing her words to avoid actually criticizing what FCPS is alleged to have done.  Of course, if her constitutional amendment passes, it won’t be an issue: it will be Spanberger state policy for minors to get abortions without their parent’s consent or even necessarily knowledge.

          Schools are flashpoints in another controversy: transgenderism.  The liberal school boards of Northern Virginia’s counties all endorse “transgender access” to the other sex’s private spaces, e.g., locker rooms, bathrooms, showers.  When a girl was sexually assaulted in a Loudoun County bathroom, the district had the protesting father arrested: Governor Youngkin had to pardon him.  Arlington County has let a registered sex offender prowl the locker rooms of its school pool facilities.  Five districts were notified by the Trump administration they would lose federal funding if they did not rescind these policies; the five are suing Trump.

          Asked to comment, Spanberger obfuscated by saying that there’s a disagreement whether the President can actually cut off funds and what Title IX (enacted to protect real girl’s sports) means.  She recently also pontificated for six months to tell us schools should welcome transgenderism without saying the words.  Earle-Sears, by contrast, has carried the fight to the lion’s dens, appearing in public comments sections before school boards to lambaste them for their gender ideology.

          Spanberger is deathly afraid of being McAuliffed.  Terry McAuliffe, the last Democratic nominee for governor, suffered a surprise upset by Glenn Youngkin when he let his contempt for parental rights spill out.  Spanberger hopes that, by saying little and smiling a lot, to avoid that fate.

          The northern Virginia boards in thrall to transgenderism also participate in hiding how a child is identified in school (e.g., ‘preferred pronouns’) from parents.  Youngkin campaigned against this and issued model education policies to stop it but the school boards in question ignore them and Virginia’s decentralized school laws (one of the few areas Richmond doesn’t rigidly hold control) lets them get away with it.

          Catholics are a minority in Virginia.  But Catholics – especially in the Diocese of Arlington – tend to be robust in their understanding of things Catholic and of Catholic responsibility in and for the public square.  There’s plenty of space for common cause – moral ecumenism -- especially with traditional Virginia Protestants across the state and particularly outside Northern Virginia and the Richmond-to-Norfolk corridor (the latter includes lots of military families).  New Jersey also votes this year but pro-abortionists have long dominated the Garden State, though electing Jack Cittarelli would limit their effectiveness.  But, in Virginia, it's really a fork-in-the-road: adoption of a Constitutional amendment ensconcing abortion-on-demand in the state would be extremely difficult in the future to repeal.  For the long-term sake of life in the Commonwealth of Virginia, it’s time to get the word and vote out for life.