The West Virginia Legislature appears poised again to pass a dangerous and unconstitutional bill that would interfere with a woman's ability to make personal and profound medical decisions with her health care provider.
This bill, SB 10, is wrong and deceptive on many levels. It is one of the most severe abortion restrictions in the country, banning the most commonly used and safest procedure in the second trimester of pregnancy. Last year, the Legislature banned abortions at 20 weeks by overriding Governor Tomblin's veto. But that wasn't enough. The special interest lobby that promotes these divisive bills has an insatiable appetite and is back for more.
Courts in the two states that passed similar legislation - Oklahoma and Kansas - blocked implementation, and the Kansas appeals court just found that bill unconstitutional on Jan. 22, the anniversary of Roe v. Wade.
Because our Legislature doesn't appear to be concerned with constitutionality, I will appeal to your compassion for your fellow woman. SB 10 doesn't protect women or increase access to health care. Instead, it strips women of their right to make a personal decision with their trusted health care provider. It takes away the medical judgment of health care providers.
While West Virginia has one of the lowest abortion rates in the country, even rarer are second trimester terminations. The procedure SB 10 attempts to ban is what is known in the obstetrics and gynecology community as "dilation and extraction." It is the safest and most commonly used abortion care procedure in the second trimester of pregnancy, which begins at 13 weeks gestation. According to the nation's leading association of women's health providers, the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, this is the medically preferred method at this stage of pregnancy and it results in the fewest complications for women.
The bill contains no genuine health exception - even though this procedure is often necessary to protect not only a woman's health but her future ability to have children. There is no exception for fetal anomalies. So, for example, if a fetus has no brain, a woman would be forced to carry a doomed pregnancy to term. That seems particularly cruel. The nastiness doesn't stop there. There is no exception for victims of rape or incest. So if a 13-year-old has been impregnated by her father, she too would be forced to bear her own sister or brother. It sounds unthinkable, but it happens. Is this how we want our Legislature spending its time? Coming up with the most profoundly intrusive and excruciating way to insert itself into women's health matters? These are extremely difficult situations for women, and the last thing a person in that situation needs is judgment and delay.
As leaders of the West Virginia Section of the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recently wrote in a letter opposing this bill, "We rely and count on a strong, professional, and often personal, relationship with our patients to enable us to most effectively provide the absolute best of medical care - sometimes making difficult decisions together that are gut-wrenching but, nevertheless, necessary." The West Virginia State Medical Association has also come out squarely opposed to this legislation.
To watch committee meetings on this topic is disturbing. You'll hear "right to life" and "pro-life" thrown around. But the fact is, this bill does not represent a "pro-life" position. Rather, in this circumstance, "pro-life" is an outright lie. What about the life of the woman? What about the health of the woman? What is best for the woman is dizzyingly lost in this debate.
Most legislators are simply not equipped to play doctor. Perhaps this is why 2 of the 9 senators voting against this dangerous bill are, in fact, doctors. As health care providers, they understand that the West Virginia Legislature is embarking upon a slippery slope when the government inserts itself between a patient and her health care provider.
Simply put, health care providers need the ability to make medical decisions with their patients that are based on scientific evidence, individual circumstances and that seek the best medical outcome. This bill would prevent that.
Doctors have told me that if this bill passes, they fear they may need to send patients to Ohio. Worse, others could be forced to induce labor, a process that could take days and lead to septic patients. What cruelty. Aren't women worth more in West Virginia? What if it were your daughter, wife or sister?
Not only is this bill morally and ethically wrong, it puts West Virginia at risk for a lengthy and costly legal battle that we don't need, cannot afford and will likely lose. This bill flies in the face of established legal precedent by prohibiting abortion prior to viability and failing to protect the health of women.
Please, don't be fooled into thinking this is about a particular procedure. This bill is part of an orchestrated attempt by special interest groups to chip away at women's rights until there are no safe, legal options left for any woman who makes the decision to end a pregnancy. They will be back for more every year. It will not end until we as a society -- as a community of compassionate West Virginians -- stand up and say enough is enough.
The nine brave Senators who had the fortitude and kindheartedness to reject this bill are to be applauded. We hope members of the House will follow their lead.
The women of West Virginia deserve better. This bill must not become the law in this state. Please join us at a public hearing on this bill at 8:30 a.m. on Monday, February 22 in the West Virginia House Chambers.
Margaret Chapman Pomponio is executive director of WV FREE, reproductive health, rights and justice organization representing more than 8,000 West Virginians statewide, wvfree.org.