Despite Amendment One,
abortion still legal in state
In November 2018, West Virginia voters narrowly passed Amendment One, taking away Medicaid health care coverage of abortion and changing the state’s Constitution to specify that we do not have a right to abortion. Since its passage, many have wondered if abortion is still legal in West Virginia.
State lawmakers have done nothing to inform West Virginians of the continued legality of abortion and what funding options are available to them in the absence of Medicaid coverage — they played politics with our health, and we lost.
Make no mistake: Abortion is still legal in West Virginia, and there are funding resources available to everyone seeking abortion care — we need to say this loudly and proudly.
Research shows that access to abortion reduces teen pregnancy, increases high school graduation rates and increases women’s participation in the workforce overall. Additionally, allowing women to control their reproductive health empowers women and the benefits of access extend to all women. Furthermore, children born to women with access to abortion are likely to have lower poverty and public assistance rates and are more likely to graduate from college.
The idea of someone continuing an unwanted pregnancy because they do not know their full range of options and resources available to them is heartbreaking. We must be able to make our own decisions that are best for our health, lives and families — anti-abortion lawmakers tried to take away our ability to do that with Amendment One, but we cannot let them win.
Our state is one of a handful of states with only one remaining abortion provider, Women’s Health Center of West Virginia. We must do our part to ensure that abortion access is a reality for all West Virginians.
Emily Tanner
Morgantown
Still another example of DOH’s do-nothing attitude
West Virginia’s Division of Highways is total reactive instead of proactive.
On Sept. 20, I sent an email to the DOH notifying them of a dangerous situation. A tree located on Summer School Road was in a precarious situation and getting very close to falling onto the roadway. I received a response back on Sept. 24 saying that they were aware and waiting on bids for removal of tree.
I followed up with a phone call to the DOH to make a supervisor aware that this was not something that should be postponed.
Well, this morning (Oct. 27) the tree fell. Luckily no one was struck by the falling tree.
I recently moved to Monongalia County and am appalled at how the DOH does not repair or maintain roadways. This is another example of how even after being notified of a dangerous situation they simply sit around and do nothing.
Diana Samsell
Morgantown
Every American needs
to read ‘Dark Money’
It takes an awful lot of nerve for President Trump, the Republican Party and the conservative media to accuse Democrats of having conspiracies against Trump when the truth of the matter is that there is a real conspiracy of very wealthy individuals (led by the Koch family), the the GOP, the conservative news media, conservative think-tanks and other organizations to abolish all of the federal government’s social safety net programs that help the lower and middle classes.
Their ultimate goal and wish is to abolish programs such as Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps, student loans and unemployment insurance benefits.
But the program that they hate the most and most want to abolish is Social Security.
Those right-wingers out there who will accuse me of lying about this really should read the book, which does the best job of detailing all of this secret right-wing conspiracy. Its title is “Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right” by Jane Mayer.
This book was selected by The New York Times as one of the 10 best books of 2018, and, to my knowledge, no one has ever been able to successfully refute anything that she says in her book.
Every American should read this book.
Stewart B. Epstein
Rochester, N.Y.
