Abortion In West Virginia
Abortion in West Virginia is legal however only 35% of West Virginians in a poll approved of legalized abortion in most or all situations.
The number of clinics in West Virginia has declined steeply from the original nineteen over the years, with ten in 1982, five in 1992, two in 2014, and one in 2017. There were 1,730 legal abortions in 2014, and 1,516 in 2015.
Terminology
The abortion debate most commonly relates to the "induced abortion" of an embryo or fetus at some point in a pregnancy, which is also how the term is used in a legal sense. Some also use the term "elective abortion", which is used in relation to a claim to an unrestricted right of a woman to an abortion, whether or not she chooses to have one. The term elective abortion or voluntary abortion describes the interruption of pregnancy before viability at the request of the woman, but not for medical reasons.
Anti-abortion advocates tend to use terms such as "unborn baby", "unborn child", or "pre-born child", and see the medical terms "embryo", "zygote", and "fetus" as dehumanizing. Both "pro-choice" and "pro-life" are examples of terms labeled as political framing: they are terms which purposely try to define their philosophies in the best possible light, while by definition attempting to describe their opposition in the worst possible light. "Pro-choice" implies that the alternative viewpoint is "anti-choice", while "pro-life" implies the alternative viewpoint is "pro-death" or "anti-life". The Associated Press encourages journalists to use the terms "abortion rights" and "anti-abortion".
Context
Free birth control correlates to teenage girls having a fewer pregnancies and fewer abortions. A 2014 New England Journal of Medicine study found such a link. At the same time, a 2011 study by Center for Reproductive Rights and Ibis Reproductive Health also found that states with more abortion restrictions have higher rates of maternal death, higher rates of uninsured pregnant women, higher rates of infant and child deaths, higher rates of teen drug and alcohol abuse, and lower rates of cancer screening.
According to a 2017 report from the Center for Reproductive Rights and Ibis Reproductive Health, states that tried to pass additional constraints on a women's ability to access legal abortions had fewer policies supporting women's health, maternal health and children's health. These states also tended to resist expanding Medicaid, family leave, medical leave, and sex education in public schools. According to Megan Donovan, a senior policy manager at the Guttmacher Institute, states have legislation seeking to protect a woman's right to access abortion services have the lowest rates of infant mortality in the United States.
Poor women in the United States had problems paying for menstrual pads and tampons in 2018 and 2019. Almost two-thirds of American women could not pay for them. These were not available through the federal Women, Infants, and Children Program (WIC). Lack of menstrual supplies has an economic impact on poor women. A study in St. Louis found that 36% had to miss days of work because they lacked adequate menstrual hygiene supplies during their period. This was on top of the fact that many had other menstrual issues including bleeding, cramps and other menstrual induced health issues. This state was one of a majority that taxed essential hygiene products like tampons and menstrual pads as of November 2018.
History
One of the biggest groups of women who oppose legalized abortion in the United States are southern white evangelical Christians. These women voted overwhelming for Trump, with 80% of these voters supporting him at the ballot box in 2016. In November 2018, during US House exit polling, 75% of southern white evangelical Christian women indicated they supported Trump and only 20% said they voted for Democratic candidates.
Some doctors in 2017 would privately prescribe drugs to induce abortions or perform medical procedures on women outside the clinic context, and mostly only to friends and family.
Legislative history
The West Virginia Legislature passed the Women's Right To Know Act in 2002. The law required the licensed medical professionals, the only ones allowed to perform abortions, read a counselling script to women seeking an abortion.
Some states, such as Alaska, Mississippi, West Virginia, Texas, and Kansas, have passed laws requiring abortion providers to warn patients of a link between abortion and breast cancer, and to issue other scientifically unsupported warnings.
The state was one of 23 states in 2007 to have a detailed abortion-specific informed consent requirement. The informed consent materials in South Dakota, Texas, Utah and West Virginia given to women seeking abortions include counseling materials that say women who have abortions may have suicidal thoughts or they may experience "postabortion traumatic stress syndrome." The latter syndrome is not recognized by American Psychological Association or the American Psychiatric Association.
In March 2015, after overriding a veto from the Governor, the West Virginia legislature passed a bill banning abortion after week 20.
In 2017, the West Virginia legislature passed a law trying to make it more difficult for minors to get an abortion. They modified an existing law to remove a clause that allowed minors to get an abortion without parental consent if they could get a waiver from psychiatrist or psychologist. The only legally permitted way for a minor to get an abortion without parental consent in the revised law was via judicial waiver.
Two fetal heartbeat bills have been introduced in the West Virginia House of Delegates in 2019. On February 7, 2019, Ralph Rodighiero (D-Logan) filed HB 2903 entitled "The Fetal Hearbeat Act." On February 8, 2019, Evan Worrell (R-Cabell) filed HB 2915.
In mid-May 2019, state law banned abortion after week 22.
Judicial history
The US Supreme Court's decision in 1973's Roe v. Wade ruling meant the state could no longer regulate abortion in the first trimester.
Clinic history
The Women's Health Center of West Virginia opened in 1976. Between 1982 and 1992, the number of abortion clinics in the state declined by five, going from ten in 1982 to five in 1992. In 1998, 96% of the counties in the state lacked an abortion clinic.
In 2014, there were two abortion clinics in the state. 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. 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. In 2017, there was only one Planned Parenthood clinics in a state with a population of 392,351 women aged 15 – 49 and it did not provide abortion services. In January 2017, Kanawha Surgicenter shut down, leaving the state with only one operating abortion clinic. The reason for the closure was the doctor who ran the clinic moved to California. In May 2019, the state was one of six states in the nation with only one abortion clinic.
Statistics
In the period between 1972 and 1974, there were zero recorded illegal abortion deaths in the state. In 1990, 179,000 women in the state faced the risk of an unintended pregnancy. In 2013, among white women aged 15–19, there were abortions 230, 40 abortions for black women aged 15–19, 0 abortions for Hispanic women aged 15–19, and 0 abortions for women of all other races. In 2014, only 35% of West Virginians in a poll approved of legalized abortion in most or all situations. In 2016, only four minors had abortions that bypassed parental consent by getting a waiver. In 2017, the state had an infant mortality rate of 7.0 deaths per 1,000 live births.
| Census division and state | Number | Rate | % change 1992–1996 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1992 | 1995 | 1996 | 1992 | 1995 | 1996 | ||
| South Atlantic | 269,200 | 261,990 | 263,600 | 25.9 | 24.6 | 24.7 | –5 |
| Delaware | 5,730 | 5,790 | 4,090 | 35.2 | 34.4 | 24.1 | –32 |
| District of Columbia | 21,320 | 21,090 | 20,790 | 138.4 | 151.7 | 154.5 | 12 |
| Florida | 84,680 | 87,500 | 94,050 | 30 | 30 | 32 | 7 |
| Georgia | 39,680 | 36,940 | 37,320 | 24 | 21.2 | 21.1 | –12 |
| Maryland | 31,260 | 30,520 | 31,310 | 26.4 | 25.6 | 26.3 | 0 |
| North Carolina | 36,180 | 34,600 | 33,550 | 22.4 | 21 | 20.2 | –10 |
| South Carolina | 12,190 | 11,020 | 9,940 | 14.2 | 12.9 | 11.6 | –19 |
| Virginia | 35,020 | 31,480 | 29,940 | 22.7 | 20 | 18.9 | –16 |
| West Virginia | 3,140 | 3,050 | 2,610 | 7.7 | 7.6 | 6.6 | –14 |
| Location | Residence | Occurrence | % obtained by
out-of-state residents |
Year | Ref | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Rate^ | Ratio^^ | No. | Rate^ | Ratio^^ | ||||
| West Virginia | 1,884 | 5.6 | 93 | 1,730 | 5.1 | 85 | 13.2 | 2014 | |
| West Virginia | 1,736 | 5.2 | 88 | 1,516 | 4.5 | 77 | 12.7 | 2015 | |
| West Virginia | 1,637 | 5.0 | 86 | 1,428 | 4.4 | 75 | 12.0 | 2016 | |
| ^number of abortions per 1,000 women aged 15–44; ^^number of abortions per 1,000 live births | |||||||||
Abortion financing
17 states including West Virginia use their own funds to cover all or most "medically necessary" abortions sought by low-income women under Medicaid, 13 of which are required by State court orders to do so. In 2010, the state had 1,111 publicly funded abortions, of which zero were federally funded and 1,111 were state funded.
Abortion rights views and activities
Protests
Women from the state participated in marches supporting abortion rights as part of a #StoptheBans movement in May 2019.
Footnotes
- ^ According to the Supreme Court's decision in Roe v. Wade:
Likewise, Black's Law Dictionary defines abortion as "knowing destruction" or "intentional expulsion or removal".(a) For the stage prior to approximately the end of the first trimester, the abortion decision and its effectuation must be left to the medical judgement of the pregnant woman's attending physician. (b) For the stage subsequent to approximately the end of the first trimester, the State, in promoting its interest in the health of the mother, may, if it chooses, regulate the abortion procedure in ways that are reasonably related to maternal health. (c) For the stage subsequent to viability, the State in promoting its interest in the potentiality of human life may, if it chooses, regulate, and even proscribe, abortion except where it is necessary, in appropriate medical judgement, for the preservation of the life or health of the mother.