West Virginia has a state law on the books dating back to the 1800s making performing or obtaining an abortion a felony, punishable by up to a decade in prison. It provides an exception for cases in which a pregnant person’s life is at risk.
Lawyers for the Women's Health Center — the state's only abortion clinic — argued that the old law is void because it has not been enforced in more than 50 years and has been superseded by a slew of modern laws regulating abortion that acknowledge a woman’s right to the procedure. One example is West Virginia’s 2015 law, which allows abortions until 20 weeks.
The Women’s Health Center of West Virginia had suspended abortion services June 24, the day the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. Staffers canceled dozens of abortion appointments, fearing they or their patients could be prosecuted under the old statute. The laws passed in years since do not conflict with the old law, the attorney general's office said, but rather were intended to "fill the void regarding unregulated post-Roe abortion," and if lawmakers wanted to repeal the 1800s-era law, they would have done so.
Salango said if lawmakers wanted to ensure that abortion would be criminalized in West Virginia if Roe fell, they should have taken more concrete action to do so.
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