CHARLESTON, W.Va. — State Senate President Craig Blair said Monday he’s not close to appointing Senate members to a conference committee to try and arrive at a compromise on an abortion bill with the House of Delegates.
Blair, R-Berkeley, said during an appearance on MetroNews “Talkline” he wants additional discussion among senators first.
“I’m not appointing a conference committee until I know what the outcome is going to be,” Blair said. “The Speaker (House Speaker Roger Hanshaw), I believe, has appointed five people–but the negotiations (in the Senate) will take place with the Republican Senate Caucus and the minority for that matter.”
The week-long special shut down late Friday night after the Senate took out the criminal penalties of the House passed abortion bill. The House refused to agree with the changes. The special session won’t resume until Blair and Hanshaw call their members back to Charleston.
Why was Governor Justice’s tax plan not taken up? The special session, which was called by the Governor, ended Friday evening with nothing passed. Craig Blair, WV Senate President (R-Berkeley), joins @HoppyKercheval to discuss. WATCH: https://t.co/yCFQ3nDJuy pic.twitter.com/CVfGwnWwhb
— MetroNews (@WVMetroNews) August 1, 2022
So for now, an injunction last month from Kanawha County Circuit Judge Tera Salango on the state’s 1880s abortion law stands and abortions continue to be legal like they were before the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision overturning Roe last month. The state Supreme Court has yet to rule on a stay request from state Attorney General Patrick Morrisey on Salango’s ruling.
“We are working really hard to let people know that currently abortion is still legal in West Virginia and we’re going to keep fighting to keep it that way,” West Virginia Free Executive Director Margaret Chapman Pomponio said Monday on “Talkline.”
She said she came out of the special session with hope that “reasonable” lawmakers will reach a compromise on an abortion bill. She said they knew last week’s abortion bill went “way too far.”
“They are going to want to do restrictions but I think the most important thing is giving the time to the public to weigh-in, to hear from the public and the health care community about what is the best way to go forward,” Pomponio said.
She applauded the doctors, who are also senators, for their ability to get the 3-10 year criminal penalty out of the House bill. She said he also heard some support in the House for making abortions illegal after 15 weeks, similar to the Mississippi law that was part fo the Dobbs decision from the U.S. Supreme Court.
Has @WVFREE heard from women who were seeking abortion that were confused by what has been going on lately? Margaret Chapman Pomponio, Executive Director of WV Free, talks about this with @HoppyKercheval. WATCH: https://t.co/yCFQ3nDJuy pic.twitter.com/SAR8qyRbpQ
— MetroNews (@WVMetroNews) August 1, 2022
Senator Mike Romano, D-Harrison, said the bill had problems from the beginning in the Senate because it wasn’t probably vetted.
“They could have sent that bill to committee. We could have had experts come in and talk about it. We could have citizens come in and voice their opinions but we did nothing until Friday until we went on a marathon session,” Romano said.
Blair said the legislature got bogged down with things like criminal penalties when that could have been added later on. He said lawmakers should have been focused on overturning Salango’s ruling first of all.
“That should have been the number one goal. Everything else, it’s taken 30 to 40 years since Roe vs Wade to get where we’re at on abortion and it’s going to take some time into the future. You cannot come in and do everything in one fell swoop,” Blair said.
He also said the legislature must reach a middle ground on criminal penalties.
“We don’t want to run doctors out of state but also find a way to make it say that doctors can’t do acts that would be considered criminal,” Blair said.