CHARLESTON — After easy Senate passage, a contentious abortion bill is the subject of a fight in the House of Delegates where a public hearing Friday morning drew more than two dozen supporters and opponents.
The situation is familiar to the Legislature, where bills supported by abortion foes generally have an easier time in the Senate but have been derailed in the House for five consecutive years.
Under the bill, doctors would have to offer women seeking abortions the opportunity to look at ultrasound images of the fetus within their womb if ultrasound is called for by the medical standard of care. Supporters say it’s simply giving women another piece of information before making a difficult decision. Opponents contend it’s an attempt to intimidate abortion providers and intrude on the relationship between doctors and patients.
“This bill is premised on the idea that women don’t fully understand the nature of their pregnancies,” said Margaret Chapman Pomponio, executive director of WV FREE, which supports abortion rights.
Twenty nine people spoke at the hearing, with abortion rights supporters outnumbering abortion foes by about 2 to 1.
Dr. Luis Bracero, a physician who specializes in maternal fetal medicine at Charleston Women and Children’s Hospital, does not perform elective abortions. But he opposes the bill because he says the language is vague and confusing for physicians, and because it tries to insert doctors into a decision that should be the patient’s.
“The decision to terminate a pregnancy is between the woman, her family, and her God,” he said. “It is not at the whim of a doctor. We don’t do that.”
Supporters of the measure contended that it’s a straightforward augmentation of the 2002 Women’s Right to Know Act, which requires abortion providers to give patients information about prenatal care, alternatives to abortion and related subjects.
“States have a right to require physicians to provide patients with information prior to medical procedures,” said Karen Cross, president of West Virginians for Life, the state’s largest anti-abortion group.
West Virginians for Life was once known in the Capitol for being able to get one major piece of legislation passed per session, but that reputation has evaporated over the past five years. Abortion foes believe the ultrasound bill is their best chance in years for success, in part because of a change in leadership at the House Judiciary Committee, where anti-abortion legislation usually foundered.
Former Delegate Carrie Webster, an abortion rights supporter who served as chairwoman of the committee, left the Legislature last year to become a Kanawha County Circuit Court judge. Harrison County Delegate Tim Miley, an abortion opponent, is now chairman of the committee.
The bill is currently before the House Health and Human Resources Committee. If it passes, Judiciary will be the next stop.
