West Virginia Abortion Clinic Fights Pre-Roe Abortion Ban Law

[Webster]

(The Guardian) Legal fights over abortion access continue across the US. Today in West Virginia, the state’s lone abortion clinic is asking a judge to toss an 150-year-old state law so that the facility can immediately resume providing the procedure.

The Women’s Health Center of West Virginia suspended performing abortions on 24 June, when the US supreme court overturned Roe v Wade. The 1800s West Virginia law states that obtaining or performing an abortion is a felony, which can result in up to 10 years imprisonment, according to The Associated Press.

The exception is for instances where a woman or other pregnant person’s life is at risk. The American Civil Liberties Union of West Virginia has contended that the statute isn’t valid because it hasn’t been enforced in more than five decades, and has been superseded by more contemporary statutes on abortion, which recognize the right to this procedure, AP says.

Advocates point to West Virginia’s 2015 abortion law, which permits the procedure up to 20 weeks. The state’s attorney general, Patrick Morrisey, has contended that the old law remains enforceable.

Lawyers for the state contend that the law hasn’t been enforced solely because Roe would have made illegal the prosecution of abortion recipients and providers, per AP.

 

[Webster]

.....looks like the clinic won Round 1.....

(The Guardian) Judge approves resumption of West Virginia abortions
A West Virginia judge on Monday blocked officials from enforcing a 19th-century ban on abortions after the US supreme court overturned the 1973 Roe v Wade decision that recognized the right of women nationally to terminate pregnancies, Reuters reports.

The decision by Kanawha county circuit judge Tera Salango clears the way for the state’s lone abortion clinic to resume services, which it suspended out of fear of prosecution following the high court’s 24 June ruling.

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Here’s a little more on the West Virginia abortion ruling. Circuit court judge Tera Salango sided with the state’s last remaining abortion clinic on Monday by overturning a 19th-century law that made performing or receiving the procedure a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

The ruling allows the Women’s Health Center of West Virginia to immediately resume providing abortions, which it stopped following the 24 June US Supreme Court decision overturning federal protections provided by Roe v Wade.

The state argued that an abortion ban on the books dating back 150 years, which included an exception when the woman’s life was in danger, was still enforceable.

But Salango agreed with the position of the ACLU of West Virginia, which argue for the clinic that the law was invalid, partly because it had not been enforced in more than 50 years, but also because it had been superseded by others, including a 2015 law allowing abortions until 20 weeks.

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West Virginia’s Republican leaders knew a court ruling could stop the state’s abortion ban from coming into effect.

“The West Virginia Legislature is strongly advised to amend the laws in our state to provide for clear prohibitions on abortion that are consistent with Dobbs”, attorney general Patrick Morrisey wrote in a June memorandum following the supreme court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which overturned the constitutional right to abortion.

However governor Jim Justice said lawmakers in the Republican-dominated Senate and House of Delegates “are not ready” right now to craft new abortion legislation, the State Journal reported. While the legislature will hold a special session later this month to debate a proposal to slash the state’s income taxes, Justice predicted a special session on legislation to restrict abortion would have to be called later.

 

[Nebulous]

looks like the clinic won Round 1.

Thats good.