State lawmakers in West Virginia voted late Saturday to send Republican Gov. Jim Justice legislation that would prohibit abortions due to the unborn child having a disability.
ABC-affiliated local outlet WHSV reported that the state Senate voted 27-5 to concur with changes approved on Saturday by the state House. The Senate’s vote came in the last ten minutes of this year’s regular session, which adjourned at midnight. Earlier on Saturday, the West Virginia House of Delegates advanced the legislation with a vote of 81-17.
“The legislation, Senate Bill 468, prohibits abortion unless the patient acknowledges the procedure is not being sought because of a disability, including a diagnosis of Down syndrome,” WHSV reported.
“I believe that every life has value regardless of its diagnosis, regardless of its place, regardless of its location, regardless of its place of development,” Republican state Del. Kayla Kessinger, from Fayette, argued during the House debate.
In addition, a separate abortion proposal, House Bill 4004, did not advance. H.B. 4004 would have banned abortions in the states at 15 weeks of pregnancy, similar to legislation in Mississippi under review by the Supreme Court of the United States and in the works in Florida and Arizona. Twelve to 15 week abortion bans are on par with abortion laws in most of Europe, as Townhall covered.
The pro-life orgazation Susan B. Anthony List praised West Virginia for passing the legislation to protect unborn children with disabilities.
“In passing this legislation, the West Virginia Legislature sent a strong message that eugenic discrimination abortions have no place in our society. Research shows 99% of people with Down syndrome lead happy lives, yet more than two-thirds of unborn babies diagnosed with Down syndrome in the U.S. are aborted,” SBA List State Policy Director Sue Liebel said in a statement. “West Virginians believe no child should be targeted for discrimination and Down syndrome should never be a death sentence.”
In front of the Supreme Court during the hearings for Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization on Dec. 1, the case surrounding Mississippi’s 15-week abortion ban, GOP Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers delivered remarks about her son, Cole, who is 14, and was born with Down syndrome.
“I cannot imagine life without Cole,” Rodgers said. “His life is worth living. Yet, in this debate over abortion, Down syndrome has been at the forefront.”
“We need to come together around the science. Around the research. Around the technology,” she concluded. “Life begins at conception and it’s worth living.”