By Mary Anne Buchanan, West Virginians for Life Communications Director
Passage of Amendment 1 in West Virginia on November 6 will return control of a state-funded abortion law to the West Virginia legislature where it belongs.
In 1993, three of the five Supreme Court Justices decided in the infamous Panepinto Decision that the taxpayer should foot the bill for abortion on demand performed for any and all reasons up to birth. Over the years 35,000 abortions are estimated to have taken place with $10 million of taxpayer dollars according to figures from the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources.
It’s not enough that incumbent Senator Joe Manchin’s voting record is only 33% during the 115th Congress, he also made his complacency on Amendment 1 known when he said in a July 15 Politico article, “We’ll see what happens.”
More recently, he indicated that he doesn’t understand what Amendment 1 is. In an October 22 Politico article he cited the life of the mother and rape and incest not being included in it. While the exceptions are not in the amendment, they are in West Virginia Code 9-2-11, a law on the books since 1993 that is waiting to be reinstated once Amendment 1 passes, making Panepinto null and void!
By contrast at an October 22 rally in West Virginia’s eastern panhandle, Attorney General Patrick Morrisey declared his allegiance to Amendment 1 and the crowd broke out in thunderous applause. No surprise.
According to a January 2018 Marist Poll, 60% of the country does not support tax-funded abortion. Those numbers are probably higher in a solid, Trump-supporting, red state like West Virginia, which the President carried by 42 points two years ago.
Patrick Morrisey has been the most pro-life attorney general in the state’s history supporting conscience rights of Little Sisters of the Poor, partnering with other state attorneys-general to defend pro-life omnibus bill HR 2 in Texas as well as a North Carolina law supporting a 20-week Pain-Capable bill. Morrisey promised to defend West Virginia’s successful Pain-Capable bill in 2015 had it been challenged in court. To date, it has not.
On the West Virginia ballot, a yes vote is a vote FOR Amendment 1. Early voting will last through Saturday, November 3.
Follow Amendment 1 at yeson1wv.com and on Facebook at Vote Yes on 1