Historic Night in WV as Amendment 1 Passes and Successful Endorsements Allow for Biggest Pro-Life Gains Yet
The Voice for All Life
West Virginians for Life (WVFL) is a non-profit, public-service organization. WVFL is a statewide network of county chapters and the voice for the unborn in West Virginia. Our goal is the preservation of human life from conception to natural death. Our primary purpose is to educate through the presentation of detailed and factual information about fetal development, abortion, alternatives to abortion, infanticide, euthanasia, and related issues. WVFL works with state policy makers and legislators to promote pro-life policies and law.
This is why a Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act was needed in West Virginia. Here’s a clip from THE VOICE OF JOHN (Riversong Productions).
AbortionIsNot.com
Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton Have been Reversed!!!
The United States Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization has reversed Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton, which were promulgated on January 22, 1973. On June 24, 2022, almost 50 years after abortion-on-demand became the law of the land, the Court finally recognized the grave errors in those decisions, and ruled that the “Constitution does not confer a right to an abortion.” For the first time in 50 years, there is no longer a constitutional right to kill innocent human beings in the womb. We celebrate this event for at least two reasons:
1. Unborn children, the future of America, can now be saved by state legislation. But the death toll is overwhelming. It is estimated that 64,443,118 deaths of innocent unborn babies have occurred since January 22, 1973. Over 64 million deaths far exceeds the deaths in all the wars we have ever fought.
To give you an idea of how many lives have been lost since Roe v. Wade, the blacked out states on this map represent a population of 64,323,828-less than the number of babies who died due to Roe v. Wade.
2. Our United States Constitution has been cleansed of the stain of killing. It has always been clear that neither the Constitution nor the history of practice in America allowed for the right to abortion. The Justices in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization wrote a brilliant defense of this position. They have returned our Constitution to the intent of our founders, to fulfill the beautiful claim that “All men are created equal, endowed by their creator with inalienable rights, including the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” While, in practice, this hopeful view of the human person hasn’t always been realized, we must always work toward this goal. An important step in that direction has occurred with the overturning of Roe and Doe.
The West Virginia Legislature has Acted to Protect Life
The reversal of Roe and Doe does not make abortion illegal in America. With the questionable policy of the “right to abortion” gone, it is up to the state legislatures to formulate laws that protect the lives of unborn babies and their mothers. Following the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs, Attorney General Patrick Morrisey issued a Memorandum on the effects on West Virginia of the Supreme Court’s decision in the Dobbs case. The old criminal law was still in WV Code, but was not in effect due to Roe and Doe. This law dated back to before the Civil War and was inadequate to the current legal situation. The Attorney General recommended that it be replaced with new legislation. The only abortion facility in the state shut down its abortion operations; however, they sued asking that they be allowed to continue performing abortions. The Attorney General had denied their request but was overridden by the Judge, so Charleston’s abortion facility continued abortion operations.
Governor Jim Justice then called for a special session of the legislature to draft new abortion legislation for the state. On September 13, the legislature passed HB 302, the Unborn Child Protection Act, which protects life in the womb from the beginning with exceptions only for medical emergencies and in the cases of rape and incest when the crime has been reported to state authorities. At this point, almost all babies and mothers in West Virginia are protected from abortions.
When HB 302 passed, all of the protective legislation that West Virginians for Life had helped to enact over the years was repealed. This protective legislation should continue to be available for those women who qualify for the exemptions in the law. The history of our legislative accomplishments appears below.
Successful Lifesaving Laws
This bill provides $1,000,000 in funding to pregnancy resource centers across West Virginia. A pregnancy resource center (PRC), otherwise known as a Crisis Pregnancy Center, is a non-profit that offers support and services free of cost to mothers and their babies in need. They do not perform or refer for abortions. The fund is overseen by a DHHR-selected managing agency, and PRCs would be able to apply for funding via grants. The cost of operations, new equipment, personnel, free resources for clients, and more could be covered by the grant. To illustrate, a PRC that wished to offer medical services could apply for money to buy an ultrasound machine, or a facility could purchase new car seats, to be given to mothers in need. Last year, PRCs reportedly provided over $600,000 worth of free services to women in West Virginia. Funding these centers will offer families real support in the absence of abortion.
This provision is part of a larger bill that provides support and protection for families who wish to adopt children. It reduces the cost of the adoption process, too.
This bill clarifies West Virginia abortion laws thereby protecting most unborn babies and their mothers from the horror of abortion. There are few exemptions in the bill. Abortions should drastically decrease due to enactment of this Act.
This legislation provides enhanced informed consent for those signing Living Wills.
This bill bans abortions done for the sole purpose of killing a child with disabilities. The bill was signed into law by Governor Justice on World Down Syndrome Awareness Day in March of 2022.
The Second Chances at Life Act of 2021 met with huge success in the halls of West Virginia’s State Capitol as the Mountain State became the 13th to pass this lifesaving legislation.
This bill requires hospitals and medical personnel to exercise the same degree of care for the baby born alive as a result of a failed abortion, as would be given to any other preborn child at the same gestational age. It provides for immediate transport to facilities capable of caring for such children.
Amendment 1 passed in the 2018 election and is now part of the West Virginia Constitution. It states: “Nothing in this Constitution secures or protects a right to abortion or requires the funding of an abortion.”
Telemedicine Exemption for Abortion, passed in 2017, outlaws use of West Virginia Telemedicine method to prescribe abortion drugs, such as RU-486.
Parent’s Right to Know, passed in 2017, amended West Virginia law to require that at least one parent be notified when their unemancipated minor daughter contracts for an abortion.
Unborn Child Protection from Dismemberment Abortion Act, passed in 2016, outlaws the performance of abortions in West Virginia that dismember the living, unborn child in the womb.
Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, passed in 2015, outlaws abortions in West Virginia after 20 weeks when medical science confirms the unborn child can feel pain.
Ultrasound Option Requirement, passed in 2010, requires abortionists in West Virginia to provide the option to their clients of seeing the ultrasound of their baby.
Unborn Victims of Violence Act, passed in 2005, places the requirement in West Virginia law that killing a pregnant woman means two deaths must be prosecuted.
Women’s Right to Know Act, passed in 2003, requires the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources to provide an informational booklet to educate citizens on fetal development, health risks of abortion and long-term damage to women’s psychological and physical health.
Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act, passed in 1997, outlaws the partial-birth abortion method in West Virginia, in which the abortionist, using forceps, reaches into the uterus, grabs the unborn baby’s legs and pulls the body into the birth canal, except for the head, which is intentionally kept just inside the womb. The abortionist then punctures the base of baby’s skull, inserts a catheter (tube), which suctions out the brain. The head is then crushed and the dead baby removed from the womb.
Future Lifesaving Laws
Defense of Disabled and Medically Vulnerable
Living Wills in West Virginia law do not make it clear that food and water provided intravenously or by feeding tube is considered “medical treatment” and will be eliminated along with other medical treatments. Patients may die of dehydration not the underlying disease.
Improving West Virginia Advance Directives in 2022
The “Health Care Decisions Act (HCDA)” in the WV Code deals with “Living Wills.” It contains dangerous language that could result in the dehydration and starvation of vulnerable patients at the end of life and in the so-called “persistent vegetative state,” because it calls for the removal of food and hydration provided by IV or feeding tube from those patients.
Our proposed legislation would ensure that food and fluids that can be tolerated orally would always be offered.
Because of advances in medicine that have occurred since the HCDA was passed 20 years ago indicating that “vegetative” patients are often misdiagnosed, our amendment would remove vegetative state patients entirely from the Living Will, so that it will pertain only to patients who are terminally ill and have entered the dying process.
A new study (July 2021, published in JAMA Neurology) again says PVS (persistent vegetative state) patients, 1 out of 4 times regained orientation if given 12 months to recover. This suggests that the common practice of removing life-prolonging treatment rather quickly after injury is killing people that could get better.
