Abortion Medication Ban Passes Senate, Moves To House 

After long hours of debate in the Health and Human Resources and Judiciary committees this week, the West Virginia Senate on Friday passed a bill to prohibit the mailing or delivery to West Virginia of medications intended to terminate a pregnancy.  

“We are a pro-life state, but those laws are being violated by these bad actors that… are putting these pills in your children and your daughters and your wives’ mailboxes …without even seeing a physician, a pharmacist or any other medical provider,” Sen. Chris Rose, R-Monongalia, said. 

“This bill adds teeth to our private laws to let them know that we will not tolerate out of state bad actors to disregard the sanctity of life that this body has preserved,” he added. “We will fight from womb to the tomb to preserve every human being, and we will defend the constitutional rights of life, liberty and pursuit of happiness, even for the unborn.” 

Senate Bill 173 provides civil penalties for companies that distribute abortion medications to West Virginia including prison time for those who do so without a medical license and possible license revocation for doctors who prescribe medications intended to cause an abortion in this state. 

It also provides for pregnant women who receive abortifacients in West Virginia, their relatives or the fathers or their unborn child, to sue the person or company responsible.

Sen. Joey Garcia, D-Marion, advocated for the legislature to focus on the children already born and living in West Virginia.

“We’re a pro-life state. I hear that said all the time. From cradle to grave. I do not think we are doing enough for those children who are living, growing, trying to be educated, trying to eat, trying to receive health care, trying to find a family, supporting the families that we want to live in the state of West Virginia,” Garcia said.

Sen. Brian Helton, R-Fayette, maintained that even the unborn deserve legal protection.

“We do have children who want to grow, who want to eat, who want to live, who want to survive. And those babies in the womb are those children,” Helton said. “Those babies also want those same things, and they deserve those same things. Every human life deserves protection.”

SB173 passed by a vote of 31 to 1 and moves now to the House of Delegates.