Republican Governor Jim Justice on Friday signed a law banning abortions at all stages of pregnancy, making West Virginia the second state to enact a law banning the procedure since the US Supreme Court ruling that overturned constitutional protection in June.
The bill will take effect immediately, with the exception of criminal penalties, which will take effect in 90 days, Justice said. The governor described the legislation on Twitter as “a bill that protects life.”
“I said from the beginning that if West Virginia legislators presented me with a bill that protected life and included reasonable and logical exceptions, I would sign it, and that is what I did today,” he said.
The approval of this measure comes two days following the West Virginia legislature voted in favor of the piece of legislation.
The ban has exceptions for medical emergencies and for victims of rape and incest up to eight weeks of pregnancy for adults and 14 weeks for girls. Victims must report their assault to the police 48 hours before the procedure. Minors can report it to the police or a doctor, who must then report it to the authorities.
The bill requires abortions to be performed by a doctor in a hospital, a provision that at least two Republican lawmakers have said was intended to shut down abortions at the Women’s Health Center, which has provided the procedure since 1976 and was the only abortion clinic in the state. Providers who perform illegal abortions can face up to 10 years in prison.
Shortly following lawmakers passed the bill Tuesday, West Virginia Women’s Health Center Executive Director Katie Quiñonez said the clinic’s attorney advised them to stop abortions immediately. Staff spent Tuesday and Wednesday night canceling dozens of appointments and providing them with resources to book out-of-state appointments and funds to help cover travel and procedure.
Meanwhile, Indiana’s abortion ban, passed in August, went into effect Thursday.
Indiana and West Virginia now join more than a dozen states that ban abortion, although most were passed before that Supreme Court ruling and went into effect following the highest court reversed the precedent ruling. Roe v. Wade.
Indiana becomes the first state to restrict abortion following the Supreme Court overturned the 1973 ruling, known as “Roe versus Wade.” Here are the details of the new law.
On Tuesday, Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina introduced a bill that would ban abortions nationwide following the 15th week of pregnancy, with rare exceptions, intensifying ongoing debate inside and outside the GOP, though the proposal has almost no chance of becoming law in a Democrat-controlled Congress.