3 Reasons to Take Heart, and Why We Will Never Stop
By Victoria Cobb, President, The Family Foundation
Yesterday broke our hearts. Virginia voters wrote essentially elective up-to-birth abortion and transgender ideology into our constitutionand candidates who stood for life and family fell short.
Question 1 doesn't just harm unborn children. It strips away safeguards that protect women's health and safety. It opens the door to the exploitation of young girls by cutting parents out of the most dangerous moments of their daughters' lives. And it writes what amounts to abortion up to birth into our founding document, above any safety regulation or pro-life law the General Assembly could pass.
That is not a policy setback. It is a wound to the Commonwealth.
We are hard pressed, but not hopeless. Take heart. Here's why.
1. The Church Arose.
Virginia's churches moved like they haven't in decades. About 1,600 churches joined One Voice Sunday, and more pastors are speaking up than at any time in 20 years. Our team spoke at more than 300 events and reached about 1,900 pastors. Signs calling for a No vote popped up in front of churches across the Commonwealth.
Catholic bishops took unprecedented steps, from a letter read at every Mass in the Diocese of Arlington to Friday fasts and a massive postcard campaign.
Congregations across denominations preached on life, marriage, and God's design for the family, sermons many pulpits hadn't touched in years. A movement like that doesn't disappear on a Wednesday.
"The hour has already come for you to wake up from your slumber." (Romans 13:11) I believe the fruit from that awakening is still arising.
2. Christians Awakened.
Believers didn't just learn what was on a ballot. They saw what lies beneath it: a worldview that treats children as obstacles, or worse, something to be discarded; parents as irrelevant bystanders; and the image of God in every person as something a majority can vote away.
Then they saw something deeper. These aren't separate fights. Life, marriage, and a parent's authority over a child are threads of one design, the design that lets families flourish and keeps the vulnerable safe. Christians rediscovered that faith isn't private. It has feet. Volunteers knocked tens of thousands of doors.
Awakened Christians pray harder, vote smarter, and speak with more courage. The Church didn't get its mission from Richmond, and it won't lose it in Richmond.
3. The Attack Exposed.
This campaign dragged the truth into the light. Lawmakers were offered amendments to keep parental consent in Virginia law. They rejected them. That wasn't an oversight. It was a choice, and now thousands of Virginians know it. Pastors saw members who planned to vote yes change their minds once they read the fine print. Exposure works. A threat exposed is a threat we can fight. Again-- the fruit of that is still yet to be borne.
Now What?
1. We fight in court, starting November 13.
Our Founding Freedoms Law Center goes to court Friday, November 13, to challenge the abortion amendment. We expect a three-hour hearing. Please pray for our attorneys, for the judge, and for truth to prevail.
We're also representing Pastor Ben Purves of Occoquan Bible Church in a lawsuit over Amendment 2. No pastor in Virginia should fear the government for preaching what Scripture teaches about marriage.
"This proposed amendment is wrong for Virginia for many reasons, including that it opens the door to greater threats to religious freedom. In bringing this suit, I am standing on behalf of many Virginians, especially pastors, who oppose this misguided initiative." — Pastor Ben Purves
2. We hold the General Assembly accountable.
Virginians got played. Twice. First with redistricting. Now with the abortion amendment. Lawmakers handed voters ballot language built to hide the truth, then cashed in on the confusion.
No more. In January, we're demanding honest ballot questions, plain-language summaries, and real accountability to the people who vote on them. If legislators want to rewrite Virginia's constitution, they can tell Virginians the truth about what they're doing. Every lawmaker will know we're watching.
And through Speak Up! and the Virginia Christian Education Network, we're raising a generation that will see through the next deception before it ever reaches a ballot.
We will never stop.
"We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed." (2 Corinthians 4:8–9)
Stay tuned: I'll share my full take on the Speak Up! Virginia podcast, live in a few hours.
