Morgantown Camping Ban Upheld, Plus A Closer Look At 2024 Abortion Data, This West Virginia Morning

On this West Virginia Morning, Morgantown city residents voted Tuesday to narrowly uphold a camping ban on public property, which purports to curb homelessness. When Morgantown City Council passed the ban last September, it drew swift condemnation from housing advocates who said the ban would criminalize homelessness with fines or jail time and make it even harder for struggling people to find long-term housing.

In November, Morgantown residents successfully petitioned to repeal the ban, an action the city council declined to take. That led to the issue being placed before voters on the city ballot Tuesday. Results are unofficial until canvassing on May 5.

Also in this episode, the Guttmacher Institute is a research group that studies reproductive health. They recently released a new report on abortion trends in the United States in 2024, and found the number of abortions performed increased slightly, but the number of people traveling outside the state for the procedures decreased slightly.

Lead data scientist Isaac Maddow-Zimet spoke with reporter Jack Walker about these figures, and what they suggest for states with near-total abortion bans like West Virginia.

West Virginia Morning is a production of West Virginia Public Broadcasting, which is solely responsible for its content.

Support for our news bureaus comes from Shepherd University and Marshall University School of Journalism and Mass Communications.

Maria Young produced this episode.

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