CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Members of the Senate Health and Human Resources Committee are tentatively scheduled to take up a proposed bill on Thursday that would ban an abortion procedure, commonly used in second trimesters of pregnancies, in West Virginia.
As proposed, the Unborn Child Protection from Dismemberment Abortion Act, SB 10, would make it illegal for any person “to purposely perform or attempt to perform a dismemberment abortion and thereby kill an unborn child” unless the abortion is necessary “to prevent serious health risk to the unborn child’s mother.”
“Dismemberment abortion is a particularly brutal method of killing live, fully formed unborn children by tearing them limb from limb,” said Karen Cross, political director for the National Right to Life Committee and political liaison for West Virginians For Life.
Melissa Reed, executive director & vice president of public policy for Planned Parenthood South Atlantic, accused Cross and other supporters of the bill of using “inflammatory” and “non-medical” terminology.
“What this bill does is it ends the most common method of second trimester abortion and it’s politicians, not doctors who are pushing for these restrictions,” Reed said.
She called dilation and evacuation (D&E), the abortion method this bill would ban, “the safest method” for a woman after 12 weeks into a pregnancy. D&E involves removing the fetal and placental tissue with a combination of suction and surgical instruments, like forceps, according to women’s health providers.
A smaller number of second trimester abortions are performed by inducing labor with drugs, a procedure referred to as “induction abortion.” This bill does not address induction abortion.
Reed argued decisions about abortion procedures should not be up to lawmakers.
“Politicians are trying to practice medicine without a license and the truth is all doctors, including abortion care providers, have to be free to exercise their medical judgment and establish the trust that is necessary for their doctor-patient relationship,” Reed said.
“This law is inserting politicians and those who want to criminalize women’s health right between doctors and their patients.”
“This is to protect a living, unborn baby from a particularly egregious procedure,” Cross countered. “We in West Virginia believe, we say, this must end here in this state.”
Both Cross and Reed were guests on Tuesday’s MetroNews “Talkline” to talk about the Senate bill.
If approved as proposed, it would make violations of the proposed Act a felony with associated criminal penalties. The bill also specifies who can pursue civil legal action against a person who’s performed such a D&E abortion and what damages are options.
A similar measure, HB 4004, is pending in the House Health and Human Resources Committee.
Last year, the Legislature approved the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act which bans abortions after 20 weeks into a pregnancy, in most cases, in West Virginia.