On the off chance one needed further confirmation the current Legislature is dragging West Virginia backwards, one need to look no further than the attempts to “clarify” West Virginia’s abortion laws.
Because instead of repealing the 1800s statute that criminalizes all abortions (with an exception for “good faith” efforts to save the woman’s life), the Legislature is looking to repeal all other abortion rules and leave that one in place, only clarifying that the mother can’t be prosecuted. It would make more sense to strike the archaic law and work with the new laws passed, if not in this decade, at least in this century.
But West Virginia politicians rarely do the sensible thing. Instead, they’ll keep the outright ban and negotiate on the exceptions.
The stricter a state’s abortion laws, the more dangerous it becomes for women to be pregnant. Not just because giving birth has a higher mortality rate than abortion procedures, but because strict laws tend to be overly broad, and those overly broad laws are impacting women’s regular health care.
Doctors are now afraid to perform life-saving procedures until the women are actively dying for fear they will run afoul of these laws that forbid doing anything to end a pregnancy — a concern the chair and vice chair of the West Virginia section of the American College of Gynecology and Obstetrics shared in a letter to the State Senate.
Legislators have tried to clarify the language somewhat to exclude care for miscarriage and ectopic pregnancies specifically, but their vague definition of abortion as “the use of any instrument, medicine, drug, or any other substance or device with intent to terminate the pregnancy” is sure to come into conflict with a variety of medical procedures. Critics have already raised the concern that the ambiguous language could prevent women from receiving necessary medical care for non-emergencies that still carry risk of death or permanent injury, like receiving chemotherapy or radiation to treat cancer, but that may be harmful to the fetus.
The House of Delegates finally, though reluctantly, accepted an amendment to allow abortions in the case of rape or incest, but only until 14 weeks gestation and only if a police report has been filed. The limits placed on these exceptions are absurd — it often takes years for victims to report the crime, either because of fear or circumstance, if they ever do — but as one legislator said, having the narrow exceptions are better than having none at all.
The bill will be taken up by the Senate today, with options to amend further. We’d like to see the Senate remove the limitations on the rape and incest exceptions and to clarify what measures can be taken to save the life of the woman and when. Specifically, doctors should be allowed to perform an abortion when they have reasonable evidence that continuing the pregnancy will harm or kill the woman, including self-harm or suicide; physicians should not have to wait until the woman is in a medical crisis and actively dying.
For all legislators talk of the “sanctity of life,” West Virginia’s social systems are not prepared to care for all these babies post-birth or to help reluctant mothers through traumatic pregnancies.
The state’s already overwhelmed foster care system is not ready for the influx of babies (over 1,000 annually based on recent abortion numbers); there aren’t enough foster homes for the nearly 7,000 children already in the system. Despite the adoption tax credit the Senate has proposed, private adoption is not a financially viable option for many families.
The state’s already underfunded welfare systems will be strained further as new and expectant mothers seek help. Will there be enough assistance to keep formula in the baby’s bottle and food in the mother’s stomach? A roof over their heads? Child care while the mother works?
The state already struggles under the heavy weight of addiction — and it will only get worse when women turn to drugs and alcohol to escape the anguish of forced pregnancies. Are there enough beds for them in rehab programs? Are our prisons ready to hold these women, who will likely be prosecuted for drug abuse and for putting the fetus at risk? Are our morgues prepared for the bodies of young women who died deaths of despair or perished from the complications of a back alley abortion?
Legislators forget that there is a life beyond birth, and West Virginia is not prepared to offer one.
