Legislative and judicial history
West Virginia's primary abortion statute is a holdover from a Virginia law passed in 1848.[4] The statute reads:
Any person who shall administer to, or cause to be taken by, a woman, any drug or other thing, or use any means, with intent to destroy her unborn child, or to produce abortion or miscarriage, and shall thereby destroy such child, or produce such abortion or miscarriage, shall be guilty of a felony, and, upon conviction, shall be confined in the penitentiary not less than three nor more than ten years; and if such woman die by reason of such abortion performed upon her, such person shall be guilty of murder. No person, by reason of any act mentioned in this section, shall be punishable where such act is done in good faith, with the intention of saving the life of such woman or child.
— West Virginia Code, § 61-2-8[5]
In Roe v. Wade (1973,) the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that states could no longer regulate abortion in the first trimester.[6] (However, the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, No. 19-1392, 597 U.S. ___ (2022) later in 2022.[7][8]) Following this, the above statute was declared unconstitutional by the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in Doe v. Charleston Area Medical Center (1975).[9]
The West Virginia Legislature passed the Women's Right To Know Act in 2002, requiring abortion providers to read a counselling script to women seeking an abortion.[10] These materials include details on fetal development by week and a list of "psychological risks" of the procedure, including guilt, depression, suicidal thoughts or acts, and "chronic relationship problems".[11] Earlier editions of the script labelled the psychological risks as "post-traumatic stress disorder", in addition to containing scientifically unsupported warnings about a link between abortion and breast cancer.[12][13][14]
In March 2015, the West Virginia legislature overrode a veto from governor Earl Ray Tomblin to pass "The Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act", outlawing abortions more than 20 weeks into a pregnancy.[15][16]
West Virginia requires parental consent for a minor to receive an abortion. Historically, this could be avoided by a waiver from a physician; in 2017, HB2002 was enacted, requiring the physician's waiver to also be approved by a judge.[10][17]
On September 13, 2022, West Virginia passed a near-total abortion ban in both houses of its legislature. Governor Jim Justice signed the bill into law on September 16, 2022.[2]
Clinic history
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See also: Abortion clinic |
The Women's Health Center of West Virginia opened in 1976.[10] Between 1982 and 1992, the number of abortion clinics in the state declined by five, going from ten in 1982 to five in 1992.[18] In 1998, 96% of the counties in the state lacked an abortion clinic.[18]
In 2014, there were two abortion clinics in the state.[19] In 2014, 98% of the counties in the state did not have an abortion clinic. That year, 90% of women in the state aged 15–44 lived in a county without an abortion clinic.[20] In 2017, only about 20% of all patients at the Women's Health Center of West Virginia went seeking abortion services. Women came from Ohio and Kentucky to utilize their services. Few came from Virginia, which had more clinics providing abortion services.[10] In 2017, there was only one Planned Parenthood clinic in a state with a population of 392,351 women aged 15–49 and it did not provide abortion services.[21] North Dakota, Wyoming, Mississippi, Louisiana, Kentucky, and West Virginia were the only six states as of July 21, 2017, not to have a Planned Parenthood clinic that offered abortion services.[21] In January 2017, Kanawha Surgicenter shut down after the doctor running the clinic moved to California, leaving the state with only one operating abortion clinic.[10] In May 2019, the state was one of six states in the nation with only one abortion clinic.[22]
