Dear Friends for Life,

At 10:25 p.m., on March 8, the last day of the legislative session, the WV version of the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act passed and was sent to the Governor’s desk for his signature.  Contact the Governor to tell him you want him to sign HB 4588, the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, into law:  304-558-2000.

If it is signed into law, it will join the list of successful pro-life legislation passed in previous years:  the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act (1997), a Women’s Right to Know Law (2003), the Unborn Victims of Violence Act (2005) and the Ultrasound Option Requirement Act (2010).  Statistics demonstrate that laws like these save the lives of unborn babies and protect women by providing facts and information before an abortion is obtained.

This session, our opponents introduced HB 4463 to control the ability of organizations like West Virginians for Life to speak out about the issues and the actions taken by the members of the State Legislature.  HB 4463 would have imposed criminal penalties if an organization merely “mentions a candidacy, a political party, or a challenger to a candidate.…”  The bill places this restriction on virtually any form of public communication and would have been imposed for the ninety days before a primary election and 120 days before a general election.  The result of this bill would have been to prevent West Virginians for Life from engaging in any public discourse about important issues for 7 months out of every election year!  This year, we would have had only a week to tell the public about the results of the vote on our bill at the end of the legislative session before the communications black-out for the primary election would have been imposed.  Fortunately this bill was defeated with our help.  WV MetroNews reported on February 6, 2014:  “The opponents picked up more support when West Virginians for Life called on lawmakers to vote against the bill.”

We can be proud of the results of this legislative session.  We deeply appreciate the work of our Charleston Lobbying Coordinator, John Carey, and of the staff and volunteers.  Your calls to legislators and your presence at our Rally were essential to our success.  Thank you and keep up your work on behalf of the babies.

Sincerely, for Life

Wanda Franz, Ph.D., President

P.S.  Please plan to attend our annual pro-life Rose Dinner featuring Cal Thomas on Friday, March 28 in Morgantown, WV.  A flyer with reservation response coupon can be printed out here, although at this late date, it might be best to call 304-594-9845 or email wvforlife@labs.net.  Bring your friends.  If you cannot come, pass this flyer along to someone who can attend.