MORGANTOWN – The House Health and Human Resources Committee approved two abortion-related bills during its first meeting of the 2022 session.
HB 4004 prohibits abortions after 15 weeks’ gestation. HB 4005 forbids the sale of fetal body parts from an induced abortion.
For HB 4004, 15 weeks’ gestation means the age calculated from the first day of the patient’s last menstrual period. The bill makes exceptions for medical emergencies or severe fetal abnormalities.
Licensed medical professionals who performs an abortion illegally under this bill would be subject to discipline by their oversight board. It provides a cause of action for a patient.
Members heard testimony from Ash Orr – who uses the pronouns they and he – now age 31, who experienced an unwanted pregnancy at age 22 and obtained an abortion at week 16.
Orr described how they did not know they were pregnant until 11-12 weeks along. Their health and emotional state declined and they sought care, but was not determined to be of sufficient risk to receive an abortion.
While the fetus may have survived to term, they said, they might have died. Suicide was considered.
“This would have completely changed my life had I survived,” Orr said, “and I would not be where I am today had I been forced to go through with that pregnancy. … I was feeling very trapped.”
The committee’s GOP supermajority defeated a series of amendments offered by Democratic members.
One would have expanded the definition of medical emergency to include psychological or emotional conditions, including possible suicide.
Defending the amendment, Delegate Barbara Evans Fleischauer, D-Monongalia, said, “I think we don’t think enough about unwanted babies.” She knows there are varying views, but she does not believe life begins at conception and there are cases where it’s not in the interest of the child to bring it into the world if it’s unwanted.
Other proposed amendments included an exception for rape and incest and one offered by Delegate Danielle Walker, D-Monongalia to substitute the word “patient” for “woman” in the definition of pregnancy. Walker cited Orr’s choice of pronouns as an example of the need for the change.
With all the amendments defeated – except one committee amendment that adjusted some language – members discussed the bill itself.
Walker told her own story of an unexpected pregnancy that she chose to not go through with in order to be a mother to her ill toddler son. She also said that members should consider a person who was raped or victim of incest who will be forced by the bill into parenthood.
Vice chair Dean Jeffries, R-Kanawha, said, “I’m very comfortable making this vote today.” A soon-to-be grandfather of twin boys, he saw the babies at 15 weeks with beating hearts, formed faces, able to make gestures and suck a thumb, he said.
The bill passed in a voice vote and will go next to Judiciary.
For HB 4005, the committee adopted what’s called a strike-and-insert amendment that is more extensive than the introduced version.
Walker questioned why the bill was needed when federal law already prohibits such sales. Committee counsel explained that the federal law applies to interstate sales, this bill applies to such transactions inside state lines.
Walker offered an amendment to change “mother” to “birth patent” that was voted down, and the bill passed in a voice vote. It also goes to Judiciary.
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