J. Nelson – Writer

Note: I’ve started a new part-time job in the evenings, and I’m finding the Tuesday/Thursday posting schedule is no longer working for me. (Plus, every day is a new existential crisis as democracy crumbles around us.) I’m going to try a Wednesday/Friday posting schedule instead, but, because I’m a night owl, it might be Thursday/Saturday before you read it. That said, there’s a lot going on, both in my personal life and out in the world, so I’m trying to have grace for myself if I can’t post twice a week. Speaking of which …

I had planned to do a more detailed post on the West Virginia Senate advancing a bill (SB 474) to remove all mentions of DEI in law because “we don’t need it anymore” and its parallels to the Supreme Court case Shelby County v. Holder, which struck down a section of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that required states with a history of discrimination seek approval before changing voting procedures.

But then the West Virginia Senate passed SB 85, to ban abortion medication, and sent it to the House.

SB 474 will harm a lot of people, but SB 85 will likely get someone killed, so today we’re focusing on the latter and we’ll come back to the former.

SB 85 defines an abortifacient as any chemical or drug prescribed or dispersed with the intent of causing an abortion. The most common medication abortions are done with a combo of mifepristone and misoprostol. You may recall that the Biden administration, in its final months, pushed to protect medication abortion, and the Supreme Court ruled against a case that would have revoked the FDA standards that allow mifepristone to be sent through the mail to a woman without an in-person appointment.  

SB 85 both forbids sending abortifacients by mail or courier and prescribing abortifacients to West Virginians, even if the prescriber is out of state. It also bans bringing abortion medications into the state (e.g., getting them somewhere else and bringing them back to West Virginia) or “place[s] an abortifacient into the stream of commerce.”

Any person who isn’t a licensed medical profession who violates the law can face 3-10 years in prison. A licensed medical professional who violates the law is subject to disciplinary action by their licensing board and have their license revoked. Plus, the state attorney general can seek civil “relief” of up to $150,000 from violators.

West Virginia already has one of the nation’s strictest abortion bans. Exceptions for rape and incest are dependent upon filing police reports,

History has taught us that abortion bans do not stop abortions — it only makes them more dangerous. Now the legislature’s pro-birth lawmakers are pushing to outlaw one of the safest ways to terminate an unwanted or dangerous pregnancy.

You already know what I’m going to say: Call your delegates and tell them they are endangering West Virginians’ lives. I’m lucky enough to be represented by a delegate I know will vote to protect women’s lives and autonomy. But so many West Virginians are represented by Republican delegates. If you are one of them, your phone call to your representative is super important right now. Call them, please.

If you need help figuring out who your delegate is, FastDemocracy (which I’ve been using for bill tracking) makes it easy. You can use this link: https://fastdemocracy.com/find-your-legislators/ (be sure to use your full address — because of the single-delegate districts, using only your zipcode or town could give you the wrong list).