Republican Gov. Jim Justice on Friday signed into regulation a ban on nearly all abortions in any respect phases of being pregnant, making West Virginia the second state to enact a regulation prohibiting the process for the reason that U.S. Supreme Court docket's June ruling overturning its constitutional safety.
The invoice will go into impact instantly, aside from the legal penalties, which can go into impact in 90 days, he stated. Justice described the laws on Twitter as "a invoice that protects life."
"I stated from the start that if WV legislators introduced me a invoice that protected life and included cheap and logical exceptions I'd signal it, and that is what I did right now," he stated.
The ban has exemptions for medical emergencies and for rape and incest victims till eight weeks of being pregnant for adults and 14 weeks for youngsters. Victims should report their assault to regulation enforcement 48 hours earlier than the process. Minors can report back to the police or a health care provider, who then should inform police.
The invoice requires abortions to be carried out by a doctor at a hospital — a provision that not less than two Republican lawmakers have stated was meant to close down abortions on the Ladies's Well being Middle, which has offered the process since 1976 and was the state's sole abortion clinic. Suppliers who carry out unlawful abortions can withstand 10 years in jail.
Shortly after lawmakers handed the invoice Tuesday, Ladies's Well being Middle of West Virginia Govt Director Katie Quiñonez stated the clinic's lawyer suggested them to droop abortions instantly. Workers spent Tuesday night time and Wednesday canceling dozens of appointments and offering them with assets to ebook appointments out-of-state and funding to assist cowl journey and the process.
Indiana's abortion ban — handed in August — began being enforced Thursday.
Indiana and West Virginia now be a part of greater than a dozen states with abortion bans, although most have been accepted earlier than that Supreme Court docket ruling and took impact as soon as the courtroom threw out the constitutional proper to finish a being pregnant.
On Tuesday, Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina launched a invoice that might ban abortion nationwide after the fifteenth week of being pregnant, with uncommon exceptions, intensifying the continued debate inside and out of doors the GOP, although the proposal has nearly no likelihood of changing into regulation within the Democratic-held Congress.