Dana Leech, Morgantown
The letter to the editor by Susan Bonasso (DP-Sunday) in regard to Amendment 1 is false. She states that if it passes in November “women will most definitely die … .” In fact, medically necessary abortions will not be outlawed.
Under the U.S. Supreme Court ruling, women have the right to abortion for virtually any reason. Nothing can exist in the state Constitution that infringes on that right. When Amendment 1 passes, women will continue to have abortions under the federal provisions. Amendment 1 will only stop state tax dollars from paying for elective abortions.
In 1993, the state Supreme Court invented a new duty for the state to fund elective abortions. That was contrary to state law (WV Code §9-2-11), which already outlawed taxpayer funding for elective abortions but exempted abortions in the cases of medical emergency, reported rape and incest, fetal anomaly and threats to the life of the mother. It is not the business of this court to create new law.
To correct this illegitimate decision, the Legislature, in a bipartisan vote of both chambers, with more than two-thirds support, placed Amendment 1 on the Nov. 6 ballot: “Nothing in this Constitution secures or protects a right to abortion or requires the funding of an abortion.”
Voting Yes on Amendment 1will deprive the state Supreme Court in the future of illegitimate judicial reasoning and WV Code §9-2-11 will go back into effect.
The simple truth is this. If the electorate doesn’t want to be ruled by an oligarchy of five state Supreme Court justices, but prefers to have abortion funding controlled by their duly elected representatives in the Legislature, they must vote Yes on Amendment 1 in November.
