HB 4007 ensures care in
potential late abortions
I am responding to the letter the editor by Rebekah Aranda (DP-Jan. 26).
She references the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act (HB 4007) moving through the Legislature. This bill will provide for specific actions to be taken when a physician has a case of an abortion survivor. The physician must provide the same care for the abortion survivor as for any other baby born at the same gestational age. This bill makes it possible for the first time to investigate and prosecute these cases because West Virginia law will define the actions required by the physician and the penalties for failure to comply with the law.
Aranda states that the bill should not be pursued because there are no cases of late-term abortions in the state. However, there are many reasons why there might be such cases. All of our laws banning late-term abortions have exceptions, such as when a mother’s life is endangered by extending the pregnancy. Dates and timing of pregnancy can be in error, and medical staff can make mistakes assigning the age of the fetus.
When the nurse in one West Virginia hospital reported a newly born baby crying on a utility sink on the ward, it was clear that these situations were routine but not reported. Our bill will make reporting mandatory.
The West Virginia nurse held the baby, baptized him and named him John. She promised him she would be his voice. (Her story is depicted on our website: wvforlife.org.)
Passage of this law in West Virginia will mean John’s voice has finally been heard. Unfortunately, the members of the House of Delegates from Monongalia County have all failed to hear it. They are among the few who voted against the bill.
Wanda Franz
Morgantown
Nice to see a judge has
connection to Arthurdale
It was interesting to read an article (DP-Feb. 3) about Frank W. Volk being appointed as a federal judge on the bench in the Southern District. He appears to have worked hard and became well educated over the years to achieve this honor and I give him my congratulations.
Although I have lived in Ohio for several years, I was born and raised in Arthurdale and have been subscribing to The Dominion Post online for a long time. I always look each day for the possibility of seeing a familiar name of someone I may have known while growing up there. Sure enough I saw the name Volk and looked to see if it was about the Volk family I was aware of in Arthurdale.
In the article Volk talked about his father living there and that he had served in World War II as an 18-year-old crew member on a B-17. I just wanted to say that even though his father was several years older, I was acquainted with him and others in the family but I did not know of his war experiences. I did go to school in Arthurdale with his brother Eddie who was much younger than the elder Frank and closer to my age.
I will soon be 83 years old and am glad I have many good memories of people I knew growing up in West Virginia, and even though many of those have gone on to do other important things, it is now nice to say that a judge has a connection to Arthurdale where I grew up.
Joseph S. Wolfe
Louisville, Ohio
Halftime show was like
being at a strip club
I am a female, well over the age of 50 and a retired nurse who has seen and heard just about everything. I consider myself fairly liberal and not too much of a prude.
However, I am embarrassed to say that I viewed the halftime show of the Super Bowl. I felt like I was in a men’s strip club that included pole dancing.
Apparently the cameraman thought he was there with me, as, for the most part, his focus was directed to the women’s crotches.
What has happened to this country’s morals? Do singers, nowadays, think that they have to have sexual aspects to their performance to prove something?
I will give credit to the choreography and dancing as they were well performed. This is taking into account that Latino dancing is more sexual, or so I have been told.
I think it was well summed up by the young son of a Pittsburgh sports commentator. He said, “Daddy, should I be watching this?”
Fay Massullo
Morgantown
