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But
instead of now going to the governor who has indicated he would
sign it, the bill must return to the house, where it passed
earlier this week, to reconcile a Senate amendment stripping the
possibility of prison time for doctors who perform abortions
outside narrow exemptions.
Several senators expressed concern about the state's ability to
attract doctors if they could be hit with prison time for
medical decisions they might make. Doctors could still have
their licenses to practice revoked if found to violate the ban.
Thirteen other Republican-controlled states previously passed
so-called trigger laws intending to enact bans of most abortions
after the June 24 decision by the Supreme Court to overturn Roe
v. Wade, the 1973 decision that established a constitutional
right to abortion.
West Virginia still had a law on its books from the 1800s that
banned abortions except where a pregnant person's life was at
risk, but a state judge earlier this month blocked officials
from enforcing it.
In response, West Virginia Governor Jim Justice ordered
lawmakers back from recess for an emergency session.
Abortions are legal at West Virginia's lone abortion clinic up
to 20 weeks post-fertilization. The bill would ban abortions
except in the case of a serious threat to the life of a pregnant
woman or of a fetus that is not medically viable.
It also makes exceptions for rape or incest up to eight weeks of
pregnancy for an adult and up to 14 weeks for a minor if the
victim can show they have reported the assault to law
enforcement.
(Reporting by Jonathan Allen in New York; Additional reporting
by Nate Raymond and Brad Brooks in Lubbock, Texas; Editing by
Colleen Jenkins and Lincoln Feast.)
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