The 46-day 2025 Virginia General Assembly session begins Jan. 8. In a sense, however, it has already begun.
Proposed constitutional amendments
On Nov. 13, 2024, a House committee voted to fast-track an extreme “right to abortion” amendment to Virginia’s constitution. The move clears the way for a House floor vote as early as the first day of session.
In a statement on this highly unusual and alarming step, Bishop Michael F. Burbidge and Bishop Barry C. Knestout warned, “Adding a ‘right’ to abortion in Virginia’s constitution would enshrine a fundamental tragedy, not a fundamental right.” They urged lawmakers “to work instead for policies that affirm the life and dignity of every mother and every child.”
At the same meeting, the House committee also voted to accelerate two other proposed constitutional amendments – one to repeal the one-man/one-woman marriage provision and one to guarantee the restoration of voting rights.
The bishops addressed these two decisions in their statement as well, expressing opposition to repealing the marriage provision and support for restoring voting rights. “We affirm the dignity of every person, and we affirm, too, that marriage is exclusively the union of one man and one woman,” they said. “Marriage was created by God with an original design and purpose that each of us is called to preserve.”
The bishops also noted that restoring voting rights to all people who have completed their sentences “is currently the policy in the vast majority of states” and “reflects the teaching of faithful citizenship that each person should participate fully in the political process.”
The Virginia Catholic Conference (VCC) testified on each of the three proposed constitutional amendments at the House committee hearing and will continue to comment at every step. These proposals are expected to move rapidly in 2025, with Senate leaders announcing that they, too, will take swift action on them once session begins. However, the earliest these items could appear as questions on voters’ ballots is November 2026, and that would occur only if the General Assembly were to approve the proposals in both 2025 and 2026.
Legislation impacting preborn lives
During the 2025 session, the VCC will continue to support bills to create a state adoption tax credit and a state child tax credit. The VCC will also continue to urge lawmakers to stop taxpayer funding of abortion.
Tragically, however, measures that would end lives are more likely to advance. VCC-opposed legislation to give abortion providers who violate other states’ pro-life laws an unprecedented safe harbor in Virginia has already been filed. There will also be an aggressive push for VCC-opposed bills to compel organizations, against their beliefs, to provide and pay for contraceptives and even some abortion-inducing drugs and devices.
The introduction of legislation to expand insurance coverage for in-vitro fertilization (IVF) is likely, too. Families struggling with infertility need support, and the VCC will urge legislators to support them in ways that respect the dignity of every human life – not through IVF, which causes the death or abandonment of countless human embryos.
Assisted suicide
The VCC will once again be deeply engaged in opposing assisted suicide. In a 2024 statement, Bishop Burbidge and Bishop Knestout emphasized that legalizing assisted suicide “would place the lives of people with disabilities, people with mental illnesses, the elderly, and those unable to afford healthcare – among others – at heightened risk of deadly harm.” During the 2024 session, assisted suicide legislation that passed the Senate came within one step of House passage. A renewed push is anticipated in 2025 – requiring strong resistance by the VCC, its allies and grassroots advocates.
Other key issues
VCC advocacy will also cover a wide range of other vitally important issues. The VCC will continue its strong support for preserving Virginia’s scholarship tax credit program, increasing state funding for affordable housing, raising the minimum wage, making prescription drugs more affordable for low-income families and seniors on limited fixed incomes, placing clear limits on isolated confinement in prisons, increasing immigrant children’s access to healthcare, and reducing gun violence. The VCC will also continue its clear and firm opposition to attempts to expand surrogacy and attempts to create a commercial marketplace for marijuana.
Advocacy opportunities
To make a difference during the 2025 session:
- Connect and engage: Visit https://vacatholic.org/, click “Join us!”, and sign up to receive VCC email alerts. The VCC will provide action alerts throughout the session – easy and effective ways for you to contact your legislators before they vote on key bills.
- Be a powerful presence: Attend Virginia Pro-Life Day on Jan. 29 in Richmond. Join pro-life advocates from across Virginia. The day features visits to legislators’ offices, followed by a Mass celebrated by the bishops. Visit https://vaprolifeday.org/ to register and learn more.
The Virginia Catholic Conference is the public policy agency representing Virginia’s Catholic bishops and their two dioceses.