MORGANTOWN – The House Judiciary Committee passed and sent to the House floor two abortion-related bills Wednesday. Both were previously approved by the Health Committee on the second day of the legislative session.
HB 4004 prohibits abortions after 15 weeks’ gestation, meaning 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 perform an abortion illegal under this bill would be subject to discipline by their oversight board. It provides a cause of action for a patient.
Delegate Mike Pushkin, D-Kanawha, in a conversation with committee counsel, established that the bill is based on a Mississippi law that is currently before the U.S Supreme Court and is under a stay issued in 2018. Current West Virginia law prohibits abortions after 20 weeks and fetal viability is somewhere in the 21-to-24-week range.
Also, counsel said, the state’s only abortion clinic, West Virginia Women’s Health Center in Charleston, doesn’t perform abortions after 16 weeks.
Delegate Lisa Zukoff, D-Marshall, offered an amendment to exclude pregnancies resulting from rape or incest from the ban, because the pregnancy adds to the trauma of the assault. She cited the instance of a 14-year-old in her district who was raped by her uncle. “These are real-life issues.”
Delegate Jonathan Pinson, R-Mason, noted that the same issue arose during the debate on the 20-week law. He said, “This bill is not about harming West Virginians. This bill is about protecting unborn children.”
Zukoff replied, “You’re going to harm one life to bring another life into this world. That’s pro-birth, its not pro-life.
The amendment failed. In debate on the bill itself, Pushkin said, “It shouldn’t be our decision.” In most cases after 15 weeks, in most cases something went wrong and the decision belongs to the woman, her family and her doctor.
The bill passed in a voice vote, not unanimously.
HB 4005 forbids the sale of fetal body parts from an induced abortion.
It was previously explained in Health that federal law prohibits such sales, but it applies only to interstate sales, while this bill applies to such transactions inside state lines.
There were no amendments and no discussion and it also passed in a voice vote, again not unanimously.
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