West Virginia lawmakers moved the abortion bill to the brink of passage, but disagreements prompted both chambers to adjourn without a final decision.
The House and Senate adjourned until Friday evening before adjourning to an unspecified later date. The evening ended with the House majority disagreeing with the changes made by the Senate and calling for a conference committee to iron out the differences. Then they went home.
So after a week of disagreements, protests, anger and politicking, nothing has been decided.
Before everyone left Friday night, West Virginia senators passed a bill restricting abortion 21-10, with some members of the Republican majority voting for it even though they said it didn’t go far enough. They hoped the delegates would tighten it.
Eric Tarr
“I will vote yes to send this paper tiger back to the House,” said Sen. Eric Tarr, R-Putnam, who said the bill was not restrictive enough as passed.
During the long Friday night, senators made significant changes from what the House of Delegates passed earlier this week.
The biggest change was an 18-13 vote to remove criminal penalties for medical professionals from the bill. If the bill passes in its final form, the state’s abortion policies would be enforced through licensing.
The Senate also reduced the period of time during which abortion would be permissible in cases of rape or incest to 8 weeks. The bill passed by the House of Delegates allows abortions within 14 weeks under these circumstances.
Senate consideration of the bill dragged on for quite some time Friday night after Gov. Jim Justice unexpectedly added the matter to a special session on Monday. Senate President Craig Blair, R-Berkeley, ordered the galleries cleared of spectators after several verbal outbursts.
Senators took what delegates passed earlier this week and changed an entirely new bill into it. Senators then considered several amendments to that amendment.
Tarr and some other Republicans have suggested that eliminating criminal penalties weakens the bill. Republicans who took that position said they had already reluctantly accepted some rape and incest exemptions because that would have increased the chances of passage overall.
Robert Carnes
“This is not a pro-life bill; it’s an abortion law,” said Sen. Robert Carnes, R-Randolph, blaming some of his party colleagues who pushed for loosening the policies. “It was done by this party.”
Carnes said delegates may come back with something more restrictive, “but if they do, it won’t go through this body.”
Other members of the Republican majority who expressed displeasure with the changes also said they hoped delegates would make them more restrictive.
Patricia Rucker
“If I decide to vote on this legislation, it’s with the hope that the other side (delegates) will be able to improve it,” said Sen. Patricia Rucker, R-Jefferson, who ultimately voted against it.
After the US Supreme Court struck down the landmark federal abortion guarantee in Roe vs. Wade and sent policy decisions back to the states, West Virginia lawmakers considered the abortion bill in a special session this week.
West Virginia had a criminal abortion law dating back to 1800 that wasn’t enforced after Roe v. Wade — along with more recent abortion regulations that suggested the procedure was limited but legal.
A legal battle has already begun over whether these abortion laws are so contradictory that they cannot be reconciled.
The Senate-passed bill does not allow abortion at any point in pregnancy, except in certain limited circumstances. In recent years, West Virginia law allowed abortion up to 20 weeks’ gestation.
Charles Trump
As Senate Judiciary Chairman Charles Trump, R-Morgan, explained the Senate version, titled the “Unborn Child Protection Act,” he said that “he’s trying to say that the new law, the new article will replace all these old acts “.
An 1800 West Virginia law punishes abortion with three to 10 years in prison, and the House bill reserves that for medical professionals.
Tom Takubo
The Senate bill makes abortions subject to license revocation for medical providers after an amendment by Senate Majority Leader Tom Takubo, R-Kanawha. Takubo, a physician, worries that the threat of incarceration will chill the work of OB-GYNs in West Virginia.
Now Takubo said: “They will lose their license and that is an extremely big consequence.”
The bill allows exceptions for a non-medically viable fetus, an ectopic pregnancy, which is when a fertilized egg implants and grows outside the main cavity of the uterus, or a medical emergency, not including psychological or mental health situations.
There are exceptions in cases of adult rape or incest within the first eight weeks of pregnancy if the abortion patient reported the sexual assault to a law enforcement agency or received treatment from a licensed medical professional.
These exemptions extend to 14 weeks for minors or incapacitated adults during the first 14 weeks of pregnancy as a result of sexual abuse or incest. In these cases, the patient will be required to report the assault to law enforcement or a state agency authorized to act on child abuse — or if the patient received medical treatment for the assault from a licensed medical professional.
The bill specifies that several things are not considered abortion: miscarriage, stillbirth, use of established cell lines or research on human fetal tissue, in vitro fertilization or contraceptives.
Hannah Geffert
Most Democrats opposed the bill and its restrictions.
“I think we need to understand that this (bill) is not abortion for poor women,” said Sen. Hannah Geffert, D-Berkeley. “Poor women in the state will have no choice because they can’t afford to go anywhere else.”
Owens Brown
Sen. Owens Brown, D-Ohio, suggested that the male-dominated Senate should not decide these issues.
“Why should 30 men in this room make a decision for 500,000 women in labor?”
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