CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — West Virginia Republican Gov. Jim Justice has signed a brand new legislation barring dad and mom from searching for abortion care as a result of they imagine their youngster shall be born with a incapacity.
Justice posted about his signature of the “Unborn Baby with a Incapacity Safety and Schooling Act” on Twitter on Monday. He made the announcement concerning the new legislation in a tweet to have a good time World Down Syndrome Day.
He mentioned the invoice provides “deserved respect to our Down Syndrome neighborhood.”
The legislation prohibits folks from searching for abortions as a result of their youngster can have a incapacity, besides within the case of a medical emergency or in instances the place a fetus is “nonmedically viable.”
It was one of many extra controversial payments handed in the course of the 2022 legislative session. Its supporters mentioned it might assist defend folks with disabilities. Others say the proposal was simply one other software to additional restrict abortion in West Virginia, which is at the moment barred after 20 weeks.
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Throughout a 90-minute debate on the invoice over the past day of the legislative session on March 12, Democratic Del. Evan Hansen mentioned the invoice would do nothing of substance to assist folks with disabilities and their households.
“That is an try to make use of folks with disabilities as props for an anti-abortion agenda, one thing that the incapacity neighborhood has not requested for, so far as I do know — and that’s simply flawed,” Hansen mentioned. “It creates authorities overreach into private household medical choices.”
A doctor who violates the legislation may see their license to follow medication suspended or revoked.
The invoice additionally requires physicians to submit a report — with sufferers’ names omitted — to the state for every abortion they carry out and whether or not “the presence or presumed presence of any incapacity within the unborn human being had been detected.”
The stories would come with the date of the abortion and the tactic used, in addition to confirming the physician requested the affected person in the event that they selected to have an abortion as a result of the infant may need a incapacity. These stories should be submitted inside 15 days of every abortion.
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