Friday, West Virginia, Governor Jim Justice signed into law legislation that bans nearly all abortion except for specific medical situations notably rape and incest.
The ban, which goes into effect immediately, also makes West Virginia the second state to pass a restrictive abortion bill since the SCOTUS moved to strip half of the U.S. population of their bodily autonomy. Furthermore, since Rowe was overturned in June, 14 states now have laws that restrict abortion. Some of these states had “trigger laws” on the books which went into effect immediately after Rowe was overturned. Meanwhile, states like Michigan are having to file court documents to prevent draconian abortion laws from the 1930s from going into effect.
Justice probably didn’t read what he was signing
Caitlin Cruz at Jezebel pointed out that there’s a good possibility Justice didn’t even read the legislation he was signing.
Abortion is finally banned in West Virginia, after Gov. Jim Justice (R) announced Friday during a covid press conference that he had quietly signed atotal ban on the procedure. If only Justice actually understood the contents of the bill!
“I think the criminal penalties, the whole bill goes into effect, I think, is 90 days. Is that correct?” Justice asked someone off screen. After an aide corrected him, Justice told the press conference: “The bill is effective immediately. The criminal penalties are effective 90 days from today.”
Jezebel
Cruz also went on to make mention of some of the fine print in the bill. This includes the general outlaw of abortion after eight weeks for adults (which you’re still firmly within the first trimester) and 14 weeks for minors. Also, as far as the rape and incest provisions go, any assault must be reported to the police at least two days before the abortion with the abortion provider being provided a copy of the police report. Because you know, actual privacy is no longer a thing in this country.