By Alicia Martin, West Virginians for Life program director
Last year, after Dobbs handed abortion back to the people through their elected representatives, West Virginia’s legislature and Governor Jim Justice immediately stepped up to the plate. With support from West Virginians for Life, they hit a solid, pro-life victory with the Unborn Child Protection Act. State law now protects the vast majority of West Virginia mothers and babies from abortion. As a result, the Women’s Health Center of West Virginia – the state’s only abortion facility then in operation – was forced to stop performing abortions.
But the Women’s Health Center of West Virginia remained open, serving other purposes. They also filed a lawsuit against the president and secretary of the West Virginia Board of Medicine, which challenged the constitutionality of the new law.
West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey intervened on behalf of the state to defend the new abortion statute. “This issue is very near and dear to my heart. As your first pro-life Attorney General, I stand firm in the belief that it is our duty to protect innocent life—we need to save as many innocent babies’ lives as legally possible,” Attorney General Morrisey said. “I am proud to stand for the most vulnerable of our society and the sanctity of life.”
It was recently announced that the abortion facility has dropped the suit. But the threat to life posed by the (so-called) Health Center has not been eliminated. They plan to open a satellite just across the border in Maryland.
West Virginians for Life will work with Maryland pro-life advocates to reach out to the victims targeted by this deadly interstate effort.