Editor, Gazette-Journal:

President Trump has said that the states should be the ones to decide the status of abortion in our country, not the federal government. In an effort to enshrine abortion in the Virginia Constitution, our General Assembly has been working on legislation to do just that.

Just last week:

The Virginia House of Delegates Voting & Privileges Committee passed an unconstitutional amendment to be placed on the 2026 ballot Enshrining Abortion!

Committee chair Marcia “Cia” Price coerced, no instructed, all who came to speak on this topic to speak Pro Se (giving up their status); We the People are sovereign, rather than saying Sui Juris (I am my own jurisdiction) in order to fool them into saying they (the speakers) have no standing. There is no higher status than Sui Juris. No government official has the right to usurp authority as Chair Price just did.

The Virginia Constitution states “they cannot, by any compact, deprive … their posterity … the enjoyment of life … A compact is a contract.”

Del. Chad Green is said in a newspaper article to have supported this action. Our delegate, I hope I am wrong, but he must be questioned on his vote.

This amendment is unconstitutional on three counts. Neither the people nor the government can enter into contracts to take life from their posterity. That all men … are free … and they cannot by any contract … deprive their posterity of life. And the General Assembly cannot pass any law impairing contracts.

If we do not oppose this amendment to our Constitution we will be judged by God to be in favor of it. I do not want this judgment on myself. I encourage all of we the people of Virginia to stand against this ballot amendment.

I am going to plagiarize Patrick Henry and proclaim:

Give me life in the Virginia Constitution, or Give me death.

Susan Austin
Gloucester, Va.