Cari Carpenter, Morgantown
No matter what you personally think of abortion, there is one truth we can’t get around: if Amendment 1 is passed, women will die. People get pregnant, and decide to end pregnancy, for complicated reasons. As they will, always, no matter what the law says.
My mom remembers the days before Roe v. Wade. They weren’t good days for women, of any kind. I feel blessed to have had a child in a time when I was legally enabled to make that decision.
This amendment is the most extreme there is: If Roe v. Wade were overturned (which looks all the more possible), this amendment would instantly criminalize abortion in West Virginia. No exception is made here for rape or incest or the mother’s health. Such exceptions were voted down by the state Legislature. Anyone involved in an abortion would then be prosecuted.
Do we really want to be a society that is not only taking fundamental rights away from people, but endangering their lives?
Ireland, a deeply religious, conservative country, recently voted to make abortion legal. Do we, in contrast, really want to take such extreme steps to endanger our mothers, our sisters, our friends, our daughters?
I believe we’re better than that.
