West Virginia signs a law that prohibits abortion in almost all cases

First modification: 09/17/2022 – 04:19

This Friday, September 16, a law came into force that prohibits abortion in almost all cases in the US state of West Virginia.

Governor Jim Justice, of the Republican party, signed that rule that was approved on Tuesday by both state legislative chambers.

The legislation contemplates few exceptions, such as rape or incest. In the case of adults, with limits of eight weeks of gestation, while minors will have until week 14 to interrupt their pregnancy. In both cases, victims must report their assault to law enforcement 48 hours before the procedure.

The ban takes effect immediately, but the sanctions, which include sentences of up to 10 years in prison for doctors who illegally perform abortions, will take effect in 90 days.

On his Twitter account, Justice described the legislation as “a bill that protects life.”

Until now, abortion was legal in West Virginia up to the twentieth week of gestation.

In this way, the state, one of the most conservative in the country, becomes the second to ratify new legislation prohibiting abortion by law since the US Supreme Court reversed last June the ruling “Roe vs. Wade “, which since 1973 protected the right to this practice.

Controversy after the decision

Criticism was not long in coming after lawmakers approved the bill on Tuesday.

The West Virginia American Civil Liberties Union posted a statement on Twitter calling the abortion ban a “forced birth bill.”

The same notice stated that the governor had “snubbed the vast majority of West Virginians and sided with extremists.”

And it is that according to the executive director of the West Virginia Women’s Health Center, Katie Quiñonez, many women have had to book canceled appointments in clinics in other states, such as Pennsylvania and Virginia, after this ruling.

Indeed, the ACLU considered that “this law is anything but pro-life” since it “puts life-saving health care beyond the reach of tens of thousands of people.”

Criminalization of abortion in the United States

After the United States Supreme Court overturned the “Roe vs. Wade” ruling and struck down a constitutional right that had existed for half a century, states immediately began setting their own abortion policy, leaving people across the country with different levels of access.

In Indiana, a pioneer state in banning this reproductive right after the ruling, the abortion ban signed by Republican Governor Eric Holcomb in August began to apply on Thursday.

While Indiana and West Virginia are the only ones to have passed new legislation to restrict abortion since June, they join 12 other states that have restricted the procedure through “spring-loaded” laws, designed to take effect just as it was repealed. the right to abortion on June 24.

In parallel, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, from South Carolina, presented this Tuesday a federal bill aimed at prohibiting abortion after 15 weeks of gestation throughout the country and that only includes exceptions in case of incest, rape or danger to the life of the mother.

However, the proposal is unlikely to become law in the Democrat-controlled Congress.

An opposite case is that of the also conservative state of Kansas. In August, voters overwhelmingly favored keeping abortion rights intact as currently regulated in the state Constitution.

The repeal of “Roe vs. Wade” has raised the alarm of numerous social and feminist groups, as they consider that it is a regression of basic rights. In addition, according to the pre-election polls ahead of the mid-term legislative elections, which will take place on November 8, the controversies surrounding abortion are one of the catalysts for electoral mobilization.

In recent months, the regression of this type of rights has increased the controversy surrounding the Supreme Court of the United States, which currently has a markedly conservative character.

With EFE, AP and Reuters