Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

In the third piece from the 10th District debate, we go over each candidate’s answer when it comes to Virginia’s newly proposed HJ1 constitutional amendment, which would make the right to an abortion part of the constitution. As a quick refresher, six of the seven Republican candidates running to fill the empty 10th District State Senate seat met on Friday, Nov. 22 for the only debate in the race. Gathering at Spruceberry Farm, each one answered questions and worked to explain why they were different than the rest and what made them the person Republicans in Buckingham, Cumberland and Prince Edward should cast a ballot for on Dec. 13. 

In the debate, we had Cumberland County Board of Supervisors member Bryan Hamlett, current Louisa County Board of Supervisors Chairman Duane Adams, former State Senator Amanda Chase, Chase’s former staffer and U.S. veteran Shayne Snavely, Prince Edward County business owner Luther Cifers, recent University of Richmond graduate Alex Cheatham and Gannon Appraisals owner Jean Gannon. The final candidate in the race for the Republican nomination, Amanda Chase, declined to take part, calling it a sham. 

Because of how many 10th District candidates there are and how long the answers are, we’re just giving one question today. We’ll wrap things up in Friday’s edition with the final questions. 

Q4: HJ1 is a new state amendment that would enshrine abortion in the Virginia constitution, allowing abortion up until the moment of birth, allowing parents to walk away from their child support obligations and removing parental notification and parental consent. What is your position on HJ1 and how should we create a society more friendly to the dignity of human life? 

Luther Cifers: My position on abortion is that life begins at conception with no exceptions. I realize there’s different views on that, but if you put me in the Virginia Senate, that’s the way I would vote 100% of the time. I think the second part of this question is where we really need to do some work. On a lot of topics, abortion included, we absolutely have let the Left define the vocabulary, define the narrative and give us the multiple choice question from which to choose our positions. This idea of ‘my body, my choice’ versus elected officials dictating to a woman how to choose her healthcare, it’s a false narrative.

The body that’s being protected when you vote against abortion is the body of an independent being, it’s not the mother. I think we’re just really bad at messaging on this stuff. This is scientific. From the moment of conception, you have all of the DNA blueprint that’s needed to facilitate life. And the only thing that’s needed is for the mother to be there, to be the caretaker for this child until it’s born and then be the caretaker for the child after it’s born.

So logically, if we say ‘my body, my choice’ means I can just get rid of this unborn child, why draw the line there? This is a logical fallacy and it’s a moral fallacy. I absolutely believe that life begins at conception and I think the Republican Party in general has a lot of work to do with taking control of some of these narratives and letting the truth be the master of the topic as opposed to these fabricated lies. 

Duane Adams: (HJ1) would enshrine in the Virginia constitution abortion up to the moment of birth. Ladies and gentlemen, let me tell you what that is. That’s evil. I used to think that we were in a debate about policy, but now when you see legislation like this, we are in a debate between good and evil. Yet we have gotten into a position in this state and in this country, when we see evil and call it out, we’re the bad people. We cannot allow, as Christians, as conservatives, as Americans, as Virginians, and as Republicans, to cede the moral high ground. How do we create a society that values life? We teach it, we go to church, we read the Bible.

We act like we care about each other. And when we see evil and this is evil, you call it out. Because when we cede the ground, to people who want to do evil, we’re as much of the problem, because it is our job to stand up and protect those who can’t protect themselves. And that’s at both ends of the spectrum, the unborn and the elderly.

How far a leap is it from abortion at birth to euthanasia for elderly people? That is not a very big leap. There are countries in Europe that are considering that. That is evil. It is up to us to stand up and call that out. It is up to us to have the backbone to fight and it doesn’t matter if you’re sitting in a crowd of Republicans like we are tonight or if you’re in the Virginia Senate, where the majority of Democrats will probably vote for that evil piece of legislation. 

Alex Cheathem: Well, I’ll try to follow that up, but I don’t think I can articulate nearly as well as he did. So, thank you for that, I really appreciate it. I’m sure I’m not the only one here who remembers just a few short years ago, Gov. Northam supporting abortion post-birth, whatever that’s supposed to mean. This is the party that we’re dealing with, folks, a party that will not call the governor out on that and instead will encourage it.

The euthanasia for elderly people, Canada is already doing that and it’s a disaster, it’s a tragedy. Please do not look into it because it’s just tragic, every single story I’ve read about it. What we need to do is appreciate life, learn to appreciate the joy of living, human determination, grit. What you can do here in the United States of America, you can do what you want and be what you want, say what you want to say. We need to fight in order to do those things. Ladies and gentlemen, I will be more than willing to do that for you in the State Senate. 

Bryan Hamlett: I don’t think you’ll find one person in this room that would be for this constitutional amendment. I echo my colleagues on this stage tonight. But for me personally, I am 100% pro life. Why are we pro life? I believe life is a precious gift from God, I believe, as in Jeremiah 1:5, that God knew us before he created us in our mother’s womb. I believe that we as human beings are created in the image of God, just as in Genesis 1:27. Human life is sacred, because of who our maker is and because of how he made us and what he made us for, for his purpose.

I’m gonna read something, I want to read you Article 1, Section 1 of the current Virginia constitution. It says that “all men are by nature equally free and independent and have certain inherent rights, of which, when they enter into a state of society, they cannot, by any compact, deprive or divest their posterity; namely, the enjoyment of life and liberty, with the means of acquiring and possessing property, and pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety.” If you codify abortion to our constitution, you’ve got a conundrum, because the constitution guarantees our future posterity, that life that we just now said you can terminate. 

Shane Snavely: I was actually the only candidate there when they passed HJ1 out of committee. There was no other candidate there, there was no other legislator there. Virginia deserves laws that will protect the dignity of life. I actually attended this committee meeting and spoke against it, I was there with concern for America and held a prayer before the hearing. I was the only candidate there, saw no other legislators. We need to focus on a (solution) that protects both the mom and the child by providing better resources to pregnant women. Protecting life is not radical, it’s humane.

Virginia deserves laws that protect the dignity of human life no matter what, not turn our back on it. Again, we have illegal immigrants coming here, getting free housing, free healthcare, free food, and yet we’re telling the mother we can’t afford to support them while they have a child. We also need to promote policies that support adoption. That’s one of my biggest pet peeves and one of the biggest things I want to do in the Senate. There’s many great families that would be good parents but they can’t afford the tremendous cost of adoption, between $25,000 to $75,000. And it can take years. That in my opinion is selling babies. That has to change and I would do everything in my power to fix that. 

Jean Gannon: Well, I think it’s fair to say that I bring a little bit of a different perspective to this whole situation, as I am the only woman up here. I’ve carried and birthed two daughters and I was present when two of my grandchildren were born and I was there when there was a stillbirth. There’s nothing like the joy of a beautiful baby and there’s nothing like embracing in grief the loss of one. With that said, I am fully pro-life, from conception to natural death. Unfortunately, the bad news is this legislation is going to pass. There’s nothing we can do about it now. The House and the Senate have Democrat majorities, so they’re going to carry it. The governor can’t veto the legislation because it’s amending the constitution, so this will be on the ballot for 2026.

While we won the issue of Rowe v. Wade, this is something that needs to be changed in the culture. We only have a short time to do this and it’s not likely we can change the narrative in this timeframe. We need to regain the faith of our forefathers, we need to be a godfearing nation once again and we need to reach out to the voters of Virginia, to put a stop to this at the ballot box. But additionally, we need to get ahead of the curve. Next year, we must elect a Republican governor, we must elect a Republican attorney general and we must get a majority in the House of Delegates.