West Virginia passed a near-total abortion ban on Tuesday during a special session of the Republican-majority legislature amid protests around the state Senate once morest the bill.
The law prohibits the procedure unless the woman “has a medical condition that requires an abortion to prevent her death or to avoid serious risk of substantial and irreversible physical impairment of a major bodily function.” This point must be determined “on the basis of reasonable medical judgment.”
The project also includes exceptions for cases of rape and incest, as long as the victim reports the crime to the competent authorities. However, they can only have an abortion before eight weeks of pregnancy or 14 weeks for people under 18 years of age.
The law will go into effect as soon as Governor Jim Justice, also a Republican, signs the bill.
Physicians who violate the law may lose their medical licenses, but will not face criminal penalties. Anyone who performs an abortion who is not a licensed physician and has hospital admitting privileges faces felony charges and up to five years in prison.
Because it is important? Since the Supreme Court terminated the right to a federal abortion in June, so-called “activation laws” that were approved before the ruling began to come into force and restrict the procedure.
- West Virginia is the second state in the country, following Indiana, to pass a ban following the Supreme Court ruling. Other states have tried, but their efforts have failed or stalled.
- Indiana lawmakers in early August banned abortion from the moment of conception, except in some cases of rape, incest, fatal fetal abnormality or when the pregnant woman faces risk of death or certain serious health risks.
An uphill law. Governor Justice called West Virginia lawmakers to a special session in July to consider procedural restrictions.
- Abortion remained legal in this state until the 20th week following a judge blocked a 19th-century ban, which was passed before the ruling. Roe v. Wade was imposed.
- Although lawmakers passed an initial version in the state House of Representatives, the bill stalled in the Senate following a failed agreement on criminal penalties for doctors who perform illegal abortions.
- Criminal penalties were discussed as they might deter doctors, especially obstetricians, from practicing medicine in West Virginia, a state considered a “maternity desert,” due to a shortage of physicians.
- The two chambers finally reached common ground more than a month later and passed the bill on Tuesday, with no criminal penalties for doctors.
Main news source: The Washington Post
