West Virginia’s legislature has passed a sweeping abortion ban with few exceptions, approving a bill that several members of the Republican supermajority said they hope will make it impossible for the state’s only abortion clinic to continue to offer the procedure.
“It is going to shut down that abortion clinic, of that I feel certain,” senator Robert Karnes said on the Senate floor, amid shouts from protesters outside the chamber doors.
“I believe it’s going to save a lot of babies.”
Under the legislation, rape and incest victims would be able to obtain abortions at up to eight weeks of pregnancy, but only if they report to law enforcement first.
Such victims who are minors would have until 14 weeks to terminate a pregnancy and must report to either law enforcement or a physician.
Rape and incest victims would have to report the assault within 48 hours of getting an abortion, and a patient must present a copy of a police report or notarised letter to a physician before the procedure can be performed.
Abortions also would be allowed in cases of medical emergencies.
The bill now heads to the desk of Republican governor Jim Justice, who has signed several anti-abortion bills into law since taking office in 2017.
Legislators resumed debate on the bill on Tuesday after failing to come to an agreement in late July, mssing the chance for the state to become the first to approve new legislation restricting access to abortions since the US Supreme Court’s ruling in June removing its protected status as a constitutional right.
The Senate and the House of Delegates speedily approved the bill after several hours of debate.
Legislators inserted several provisions they said were specifically targeted at the Women’s Health Centre of West Virginia, which was the state’s first abortion clinic when it opened in 1976 after the US Supreme Court’s landmark case Roe vs Wade.
It has existed as the state’s sole abortion clinic for years, making it the ever-increasing target of anti-abortion legislators and protesters.
The bill says surgical abortions can only be performed at a state-licensed hospital by a physician with hospital privileges.
Anybody else who performs an abortion, including nurse practitioners and other medical professionals, could face three to 10 years in prison. A physician who performs an illegal abortion could lose their medical licence.
Pregnant people who obtain illegal abortions will not face any form of prosecution under the bill.
Kaylen Barker, spokesperson for the Women’s Health Centre of West Virginia, said the clinic will not shut down, even if the staff are no longer able to provide abortions. Like many clinics, the facility did not offer the procedure daily.
Most days are dedicated to services like gender-affirming hormone therapy, HIV prevention and treatment and routine gynaecological care — cervical exams, cancer screenings — mostly for low-income patients on Medicaid with nowhere else to go.
Democrat Owens Brown, West Virginia’s only black senator, spoke against the bill before it passed the Senate. He said when he looks around at his fellow legislators, he sees a body that is overwhelmingly comprised of white, middle-aged to elderly men who are middle-class or above.
He compared groups of men passing legislation that overwhelmingly impacts women to laws that were passed by white legislators when slavery was legal in the US. He said “all laws are not good laws made by men”.
“That’s somewhat irrational in many ways to be able to apply a law that will never apply to you,” he said. “It’s easy for you to sit there and do that because you will never have to face the consequences of your actions.”
