NORFOLK, Va. — Republicans unsuccessfully sought to block a redistricting referendum from going before Virginia voters next month by challenging the process used to get the issue on the ballot. Now, a conservative legal group is running a similar play in an attempt to block a constitutional amendment that would preserve abortion rights from appearing on midterm ballots in November.

Liberty Counsel filed a lawsuit this week in the Circuit Court of Bedford County to block a referendum from appearing on general election ballots in November for voters to decide whether to enshrine abortion access into Virginia’s Constitution. The firm, a Florida-based Christian ministry that has offices in Virginia and Washington D.C., filed the lawsuit on behalf of Bedford County Supervisor Charla Bansley.

The General Assembly in January approved a House Joint Resolution to establish a fundamental right to reproductive care in the commonwealth. If voters approve the referendum, it would ensure Virginians have access to contraception and fertility treatments as well as a right to obtain an abortion. The vote was the second required step in a multiyear process as constitutional amendments must pass the legislature twice with an election in between.

However, the lawsuit claims the clerk of the House of Delegates failed to distribute the constitutional amendment to circuit court clerks in all counties, including Bedford County, after its initial passage during the 2025 session.

State law requires that two copies of proposed constitutional amendments must be distributed to all circuit court clerks — one to post on the courthouse door (or circuit court’s website) and the other made available for public inspection. Circuit court clerks must display these proposed constitutional amendments at least three months prior to the next general election for the House of Delegates.

The lawsuit claims that circuit court clerks for Bedford and Campbell counties and the city of Lynchburg each affirmed that they did not receive copies of the proposed constitutional amendment from the House clerk and that no notice was posted. Since those counties never received or made proper postings of the amendment, Liberty Counsel argues this year’s second approval is obsolete.

Liberty Counsel Chairman Mat Staver said in a statement Virginia’s Constitution has a strict process for enacting amendments to ensure voters can be informed on potential changes, and a lack of proper notice means any potential abortion referendum process must be restarted for the 2027-2028 legislative and election cycles.

“These procedures exist to protect the people’s right to transparent, orderly constitutional change,” Staver said in the statement. “Any misstep undermines the integrity of the amendment process and can interfere with the will of the voters.”

The litigation is a very similar strategy Republicans have used in efforts to block a redistricting referendum from appearing on special election ballots in April, which have thus far been unsuccessful.

That referendum would decide whether Virginia adopts a mid-decade redistricting constitutional amendment to shift Virginia’s congressional map, which currently has six Democrats and five Republicans in the U.S. House, to a potential 10-1 Democrat advantage.

Republicans won a lower court battle when a Tazewell County Circuit Court judge ruled in January that referendum could not appear on special election ballots in April because the General Assembly failed to make the proposed amendment publicly available prior to elections last year.

However, the Virginia Supreme Court ruled on Feb. 13 that the redistricting referendum vote is allowed to proceed while the underlying lawsuit continues litigation. A final decision in that case is set to come after voters have cast their ballots on the referendum on April 21.

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