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REPUBLICAN GOVERNOR JIM Justice has signed into law a ban on abortions at all stages of pregnancy, making West Virginia the second state to enact a law prohibiting the procedure since the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade in June.
The bill will go into effect immediately, except for the criminal penalties, which will go into effect in 90 days, he said.
Justice described the legislation on Twitter as “a bill that protects life.”
“I said from the beginning that if WV legislators brought me a bill that protected life and included reasonable and logical exceptions I would sign it, and that’s what I did today,” he said.
The ban has exemptions for medical emergencies and for rape and incest victims until eight weeks of pregnancy for adults and 14 weeks for children.
Victims must report their assault to law enforcement 48 hours before the procedure. Minors can report to the police or a doctor, who then must tell police.
The bill requires abortions to be performed by a physician at a hospital — a provision that at least two Republican lawmakers have said was intended to shut down abortions at the Women’s Health Centre, which has provided the procedure since 1976 and was the state’s sole abortion clinic.
Providers who perform illegal abortions can face up to 10 years in prison.
Shortly after lawmakers passed the bill on Tuesday, Women’s Health Centre of West Virginia executive director Katie Quinonez said the clinic’s lawyer advised them to suspend abortions immediately.
Staff spent Tuesday night and Wednesday cancelling dozens of appointments and providing them with resources to book appointments out of state and funding to help cover travel and the procedure.
Indiana’s abortion ban — passed in August — started being enforced yesterday.
Indiana and West Virginia now join more than a dozen states with abortion bans, though most were approved before that Supreme Court ruling and took effect once the court threw out the constitutional right to end a pregnancy.
On Tuesday, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina introduced a bill that would ban abortion nationwide after the 15th week of pregnancy, with rare exceptions, intensifying the ongoing debate inside and outside the GOP, though the proposal has almost no chance of becoming law in the Democratic-held Congress.
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If the Republicans really cared about life they would bring in gun controls and affordable health care for all……but hey they will never do that because that’s “communism”.
The US is in a right mess and its hard to predict how bad its going to get.
Whats wrong with these people? Would they want let’s say for example a mother of 2 or 3 children to continue with a pregnancy that might kill her in order to save a feotus? This is going back to the dark ages & desperation will drive women back to the backsteet abortions.
@Colette Kearns: this extreme situation is specifically allowed for if you read the article.
@Seamus Mac: Abortion should be allowed in all cases. My body my choice. Its ridiculous that once again a man has signed a bill restricting body autonomy. If you don’t like abortions then don’t have one but leave those who need an abortion alone. It’s healthcare and women need to be able to access this type of healthcare freely.
@Colette Kearns: abortion is murder. Plain and simple.
@Carol Kavanagh: your one sick women
They won’t stop until abortion is illegal in all of the US. This is not a popular measure among the general population, which is why the Republicans have been slipping in the polls in the run-up to the midterms, and why they’re now sending migrants to Democrat-run states in an attempt to gain control of Congress and the Senate, and they’ll keep doing so to win control of the White House in 2024 as well. And they may well succeed (not with Trump I think, but with DeSantis). It’s insidious.
Talk about other countries being in the dark age’s the USA is going back to them. From the front runner too the back burner.
@Mick McGuinness: squeal like a pig type of back for sure mick.
@Mick McGuinness: yeah imagine not being able to terminate your offspring. Very backward.
@Seamus Mac: Imagine having to carry a child which is a product of rape/incest. You’re a man. You shouldn’t have a say in what a woman does with her body. You don’t like abortions then don’t have one.
@Seamus Mac: Forcing a person to provide their body to prolong the life of another is a breach of the fundamental right to bodily autonomy.
No one should be forced into carrying a pregnancy against their wishes.
Pregnancy takes a huge toll on the body its an immense undertaking to both carry a pregnancy to term and then become a parent.
Take your emotive nonsense elsewhere. You’ve zero concept of what it must be like to be in that situation.
@Tricia G ☘️: Bravo. Well said. THANK YOU.
Do Americans not have a right to have a referendum? Surely this would not happen if the population could choose!!
@Jenny Mc Carthy: their elections are a circus in some ways and how people are not included and some are but can you imagine a vote like that. The electoral college would have to be used they’d say over the popular vote due to small states being swept aside by big ones
@Jenny Mc Carthy: They’ve managed it by extreme Gerrymandering, not proportional to population Congress members and senators; court packing by the Republicans (blocking Merrick Garlands seat and forcing through Amy Coney Barrets, not to mention the large number of ABA unqualified judges appointed during Trump’s tenure) and the blatant voter suppression efforts, again by Republicans.
Republicans realised they can no longer win the popular votes so they’ve spent the last 15 years cheating and it had come to fruition.
Clinton won by 3 million, Biden by more than 7 million.
Abortion should be considered in only the most rare and terrible circumstances. This bill allows for that. It is not an abortion ban.
@Seamus Mac: You’re a dying breed Seamus. Surely you have to realise that this ban goes against the reality of modern healthcare. It’s stagnant, medieval thinking.
@HarveyLemonade: there is no ban, merely restrictions. Do you think there should be any restrictions on access to abortion?
@Seamus Mac: Course there is a ban. What kind of mental gymnastics to you have to do to think this isn’t a ban.
Rape victims have to report it to law enforcement!? Come on! Within 8 weeks!? JFC have you any empathy at all?
Paying lip service to “exceptions”. Your ability to completely ignore the reality of forcing people to remain pregnant against their will is completely unacceptable and utterly barbaric!
You realise they’re people, right? Living, breathing people. Absolutely remarkable to me that you can do easily discount them but you hold a fetus up to be fat more important than them.
@Tricia G ☘️: surely rape should be reported asap to protect other potential victims?
@Seamus Mac: if you haven’t gone through the trauma of being sexually assaulted you should really refrain from commenting on these cases. A lot of victims don’t feel safe enough to report until decades later. Younger girls are not even aware they were raped and might get pregnant as a consequence (you know those 10/12 years old that get assaulted by family members?). Perpetrators frequently use their power to silence victims and cover up or coerce them (like a lot of domestic violence/coercive control cases). All these leaving aside a justice system that is retraumatising for victims. Ignorant proclaims made just to feel morally superior to other should stop. Just stop.
@Seamus Mac: No, theres only one reason a woman should be allowed get an abortion. Because she doesnt want to be pregnant.
JIM Not so Justice though. I can’t help wondering if he gave himself that name!
I personally find the ladies in the main photograph very frightening, and not a little unattractive in both their gaudy appearance and obvious aggression.
And the US want us to believe that they went to war under the pretext of fighting for freedom,now women in the US can’t even have an abortion.what’s next?the right to vote?
What’s wrong with these people were only following on from our nazi and pol pot leaders in extermination of babies
this will backfire on republicans they just don’t know it yet.
@Gerald OBrien: I think they do. But they brought it on themselves. They’ve goaded their base for decades now, deliberately using this issue to gain votes but they took it too far. They allowed Trump into office, he nominated justices to the Supreme Court that don’t care about appearing non-partisan. John Roberts is a right wing judge but he always faked being nonpartisan. Kavanagh, Gorsch and Coney-Barrett have no such reticence about displaying their partisanship.
Lindsey Graham has gotten into crap with his 15 week attempt at a federal ban, his colleagues know its not a popular vote winner outside of the nuttier base of the party.
The patients took over the asylum. But they were handed the keys.
I guess rape or incest doesnt have to be proven first so that’s one way around the ban.
Y’all Qaeda
have your say