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Life Matters Spring 2018

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Constitutional Amendment 1 to Stop State Funding of Abortion

This year, the West Virginia legislature passed a proposed constitutional amendment, which will be on the November 6 ballot.

Please vote for Amendment 1 which says: “Nothing in this Constitution secures or protects a right to abortion or requires the funding of an abortion.”  Its purpose is to cleanse our state constitution on the issue of abortion and allow the state legislature to exercise its appropriate responsibility for control over the funding of abortion.

The state of West Virginia never changed the West Virginia law banning abortion following the federal Supreme Court’s abortion decisions in 1973.  Women received abortions in West Virginia under the federal constitutional provision found in Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton. Then in 1993, the Panepinto Decision “found” the requirement of government funding of abortion in the West Virginia Constitution.

Over the years, West Virginia has paid nearly $10,000,000 for 35,000 abortions under Medicaid. However, the U.S. Supreme Court had ruled in 1980 in Harris v. McRae that the Court’s 1973 abortion decisions created a right to abortion, not a government entitlement, under the federal constitution. Since then, federal Medicaid dollars have been limited to the funding of abortions only in cases that threaten the life of the mother or in rape and incest.

Following passage of Amendment 1, women in West Virginia will still be able to have abortions under the federal constitution. When the law adjudicated under Panepinto goes back into effect, our tax dollars would be limited to paying for abortion only in the cases of life of the mother, medical emergency, reported rape and incest and fetal anomaly.

If Amendment 1 passes in November, it will eliminate the Panepinto funding requirement and prevent future Judges from “finding” abortion rights in the West Virginia Constitution.

WVL-PAC President Wanda Franz, Ph.D., had this to say: “West Virginians for Life thanks the people of the state of West Virginia for passing Amendment 1 to stop taxpayer-funding of abortion on demand. Passage of the amendment returns control of the budget to the state legislature, as required by the State Constitution. We commend the members of the state legislature for their courage in putting this amendment on the ballot.”