A bill moved through the Senate Health and Human Resources Committee on Thursday that would require medical professionals to educate someone granted an abortion in West Virginia about possible risks.
A bill moved through the Senate Health and Human Resources Committee on Thursday that would require medical professionals to educate someone granted an abortion in West Virginia about possible risks.
Abortion is banned in West Virginia with exceptions for rape, incest, or to save a pregnant person’s life.
Senate Bill 352 requires physicians to offer those who are granted an abortion in West Virginia an ultrasound and information on the gestational age of the fetus or embryo and possible risks associated with the procedure.
The bill states that consent is only voluntary and informed if the licensed medical professional informs the patient of the medical risks associated with the particular abortion procedure including the possibility of infection, hemorrhage, danger to subsequent pregnancies, infertility and reversal.
Physicians would also be required to educate patients on options for perinatal hospice services if they carry a non-viable pregnancy to term.
Sen. Patricia Rucker, a R-Jefferson, said the bill does not further restrict abortion in West Virginia.
“What this does is ensure women have informed decisions, and information to make decisions under the limited circumstances we allow,” Rucker said.
The committee substitute for Senate Bill 352, Modifying the Unborn Child Protection Act, passed the committee and goes to the full Senate floor for consideration.
On this West Virginia Morning, a bill defining what air monitoring systems can and can’t be used in regulatory issues and in court has garnered some spirited and extended debate in the House of Delegates. Also, we have an excerpt from the latest Us & Them podcast, exploring the geography of abortion access in the United States.
On this West Virginia Morning, a bill defining what air monitoring systems can and can’t be used in regulatory issues and in court has garnered some spirited and extended debate in the House of Delegates. Randy Yohe has the story.
Also, in this show, the nation’s abortion battle is now in the hands of the states. Since a 2022 U.S. Supreme Court decision overturned federal abortion rights, 21 states have either banned or restricted abortion access, including West Virginia. Meanwhile, West Virginia’s neighbor, Maryland, is one of 22 states that have taken steps to protect abortion rights and expand access.
On the latest Us & Them podcast, host Trey Kay follows the decision of the Women’s Health Center of West Virginia to move its abortion services just over the border to a new clinic in Maryland. However, some residents in Western Maryland say that goes against their more conservative social and political nature. We listen to an excerpt from the next Us & Them, “The Geography of Abortion.”
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.
Eric Douglas is our news director and producer.
Listen to West Virginia Morning weekdays at 7:43 a.m. on WVPB Radio or subscribe to the podcast and never miss an episode. #WVMorning
State borders are now all important in determining access to abortion. Since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, West Virginia’s only abortion clinic has moved across the border to Maryland to continue providing abortions.
State borders are the new front lines in the nation’s abortion battle. On this episode of Us & Them, host Trey Kay looks at the evolving geography of abortion.
Since a 2022 U.S. Supreme Court decision overturned federal abortion rights, 21 states have either banned or restricted abortion access, including West Virginia. Meanwhile, West Virginia’s neighbor, Maryland, is one of 22 states that are protecting abortion rights and expanding access.
Kay follows the decision of Women’s Health Center of West Virginia to move its abortion services from Charleston to a new clinic just over the border near Cumberland, Maryland. The move was intentional, because Western Maryland, like West Virginia, is a so-called abortion desert. The two regions have some deep political and cultural similarities. Western Maryland Republicans say they feel ignored by the overwhelmingly liberal, Democratic legislature in Annapolis. They say the new abortion clinic is not wanted or needed in their part of Maryland, and they blame the clinic’s presence on the fallout from Roe v. Wade’s defeat.
This episode of Us & Them is presented with support from the West Virginia Humanities Council and the CRC Foundation.
Subscribe to Us & Them on Apple Podcasts, NPR One, RadioPublic, Spotify, Stitcher and beyond.
Mudge referred to the political segregation that has deepened in Maryland as it has across the country.
There’s the rural, conservative, Republican Maryland of the western panhandle, the eastern Chesapeake Bay, and the counties north of Baltimore. And there’s the urban, liberal, Democratic Maryland of Baltimore City, Annapolis and the D.C. suburbs that dominates state politics.
David Karol, an associate professor of government and politics at the University of Maryland, said it wasn’t always like this.
Karol said his students were surprised to learn that in the presidential election of 1988, Republican George H. W. Bush won Maryland while Democrat Mike Dukakis won West Virginia.
“Which, you know, is just shocking to students, because that’s a complete reversal of the alignment that we see today,” Karol said.
This is what abortion care has become after the fall of Roe: a state-by-state fight over access, where abortion rights are determined by the lines on a map. The state line that divides West Virginia and Maryland runs through mountain communities that are alike in their topography, their culture and their political affiliations.
But on one side of that state line, abortion is legal, while on the other side, abortion is a criminal offense.
The lawsuit claimed that Morrisey violated federal law, more specifically the commerce clause of the U.S Constitution, by prohibiting the sale of the drug in West Virginia.
Abortion pill manufacturer GenBioPro has filed an appeal to the judge’s August ruling in its case against West Virginia’s near-total abortion ban.
In his ruling, U.S. District Court Judge Robert Chambers dismissed some claims filed by pharmaceutical group GenBioPro in a lawsuit against the state’s attorney general, Patrick Morrisey.
GenBioPro manufactures a generic version of Mifepristone, an FDA approved, non-invasive prescription pill. The medication is used in conjunction with Misoprostol for medical abortions and can be taken at home to terminate a pregnancy.
The lawsuit claimed that Morrisey violated federal law, more specifically the commerce clause of the U.S Constitution, by prohibiting the sale of the drug in West Virginia.
The clause gives Congress broad power to regulate and restrict states from impairing interstate commerce. However, Chambers, who presides over the southern district of West Virginia, said states have the right to regulate public health and morality by curtailing the sale of goods.
The court earlier ruled that GenBioPro had legal standing to bring a suit against the attorney general’s office on the basis of economic damages incurred by the company.
West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey said his office stands ready to fight an appeal and that the judge’s former ruling made it clear the regulation of abortion falls on the states.
“As we did in federal district court, we stand ready to defend West Virginia law to the fullest,” Morrisey said. “There’s no doubt in my mind the new Unborn Child Protection Act is not preempted by federal law and that all of these statutes are constitutional.”
Skye Perryman, Legal Counsel to GenBioPro and President and CEO of Democracy Forward, said this appeal is a critical next step in her organization’s fight to protect access to medication abortion.
“West Virginia’s decision to step in where Congress has granted FDA the authority to regulate mifepristone is unlawful and could undermine not only access to medication, but the country’s entire drug regulation system,” Perryman said. “What’s more, decades of science support mifepristone’s safety and efficacy and it is unacceptable that people living in West Virginia who need this basic health care are being forced to travel out of state or forgo care altogether. We look forward to continuing to represent GenBioPro in the further stages of this case.”
According to Morrisey’s office, in August, the district court dismissed the preemption claim against the state’s Unborn Child Protection Act and the constitutional challenges entirely, but it allowed the preemption challenge to the telehealth provisions to proceed.
Morrisey said GenBioPro removed the telehealth challenge in order to proceed with an appeal.
For the past four years, Trey Kay has gathered a group of West Virginians — four from the political right and four from the left — for the “Us & Them Dinner Party.” The discussion at this year’s gathering focused on former President Trump’s indictments, abortion laws, diminishing public trust and more.
In a new podcast episode of Us & Them, host Trey Kay invites his dinner party guests to gather once again for some fresh conversation across the divide.
Kay’s friends, old and new, all share a favorite dish at the potluck meal while offering honest and sometimes raw accounts of how the social and political issues of the day affect them. Kay guides the conversation through a range of potential minefields – including the indictments of former President Trump, trust in elections, allegations of government corruption and our nation’s changing abortion laws.
The show highlights heartfelt disagreements while acknowledging moments of common ground.
This episode of Us & Them is presented with support from the West Virginia Humanities Council, the Daywood Foundation and the CRC Foundation.
Subscribe to Us & Them on Apple Podcasts, NPR One, RadioPublic, Spotify, Stitcher and beyond.
For months, U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville has blocked hundreds of high-ranking military officers from promotion.
U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito says military promotions have been stalled because of one senator, and she disagrees with his approach.
For months, U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville has blocked hundreds of high-ranking military officers from promotion. The Alabama Republican has done so in protest of a Pentagon policy that allows the federal government to reimburse travel expenses for out-of-state abortions for servicemembers.
While she agrees with Tuberville on the policy question, Capito says she doesn’t think holding up military promotions is the way to resolve the dispute, especially with global conflicts raging.
“Sen. Tuberville has picked the wrong people to hold accountable,” she said. “These are not the ones that are decisionmakers or policymakers at the DOD.”
Though the Senate confirmed three promotions on Thursday, Tuberville objected to 61 others late Wednesday, drawing the ire of his and Capito’s fellow Republican senators.
Still, Capito wouldn’t commit to a proposal from Democrats to bypass Tuberville’s objections. Democrats would need nine Republicans to vote with them to achieve that.
Those confirmed Wednesday include Navy Adm. Lisa Franchetti, the first woman to serve as a Pentagon service chief and the first woman to join the Joint Chiefs of Staff.