Supreme Court, here we come as more and more states do their best to chip away at Roe v. Wade: West Virginia Republicans Override Their Governor To Pass 20-Week Abortion Ban:
On Friday, the West Virginia legislature voted to override their governor’s recent veto of a 20-week abortion ban, ensuring that the restriction will become law. Cloaked in the language of “fetal pain,” this particular policy continues to gain momentum; West Virginia will join the 10 other states that currently ban abortions after this point.
An identical 20-week ban made its way to the governor’s desk last year. Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin (D) has vetoed the legislation both times, saying that it unconstitutionally restricts access to abortion and will not survive a court challenge.
But after the most recent midterm elections, Republicans picked up more seats in West Virginia. Since state law allows the legislature to override governor’s vetoes with a simple majority during the regular session, there were enough votes this year to push through the 20-week abortion ban.
The abortion clinics in West Virginia do not perform procedures past 20 weeks of pregnancy, so the handful of women who have later abortions there are typically dealing with emergency pregnancy situations in hospitals.
“With this action today, the politicians behind this law have revealed how far they are willing to go to advance their ideological agenda at the expense of women’s rights, lives, and safety. They should be ashamed,” Nancy Northup, the president of the Center for Reproductive Rights, said in a statement.
According to the State Journal, this marks the first time that the legislature has voted to override a governor’s veto since 1987. Polling conducted last year found that the measure was actually fairly unpopular with voters, who didn’t want their lawmakers to spend time focusing on passing more abortion restrictions. [...]
Proponents of reproductive rights point out than banning abortions after 20 weeks ends up hurting women in desperate situations. Later abortions are already very rare, and the women who seek them usually fall into one of two categories. Sometimes, women discover serious fetal health issues that weren’t evident earlier, and choose to end the pregnancy to prevent their unborn child from suffering. Other times, low-income women are forced to delay abortion until that point because it takes them that long to save up the money for it.
These people won't be happy until we're back to back alley abortions and coat hangers and jailing women and doctors for performing abortions no matter what the circumstances, a woman's fertility or life be damned.
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