Judge blocks enforcement of West Virginia abortion ban

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — A judge in West Virginia’s capital blocked enforcement of the state’s 150-year-old abortion ban on Monday, opening the door for abortions to be resumed in the state.

Kanawha County Circuit Court Judge Tera L. Salango granted the Women’s Health Center of West Virginia a preliminary injunction against the 1800s-era ban, saying that in the absence of action by the court, the clinic and its patients, “especially those who are impregnated as a result of a rape or incest, are suffering irreparable harm.”

Attorney General Patrick Morrisey decried the ruling, calling it “a dark day for West Virginia.” He said his office will appeal the decision to the state Supreme Court.

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abortion clinic — argued that the old law is void because it has not been enforced in more than 50 years and has been superseded by a slew of modern laws regulating abortion that acknowledge a woman’s right to the procedure.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.

VICTORY: A Court has blocked West Virginia’s cruel and archaic abortion ban by issuing a preliminary injunction. Our work isn't done yet, however. We will need you to stand with us in the coming fight at the legislature.

— ACLU of WV (@ACLU_WV) July 18, 2022

The Women’s Health Center’s attorneys said abortion services are essential health care, and the state’s most vulnerable residents are put at risk every day they don’t have access to that care.

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 have canceled dozens of abortion appointments, fearing they or their patients could be prosecuted under the old statute.

“When it was in effect, the statute was used to criminalize both people who seek and provide abortion care,” said the ACLU of West Virginia, part of the team of attorneys representing the abortion clinic.

Judge Salango agreed, saying the recent laws enacted by the state legislature “hopelessly conflict with the criminal abortion ban” and that it would be “inequitable” to allow conflicting laws to remain on the books.

“The code is replete with examples of undeniable conflicts in the law that appear fundamental and irreconcilable, making the law incompatible by any reading,” she said of the criminal abortion ban.

The WV AG decried a circuit court judge’s decision to grant a preliminary injunction against a West Virginia abortion law that has been on the books for more than 100 years.

Read more here: https://t.co/TShkWdExKz

— WV Attorney General (@WestVirginiaAG) July 18, 2022

West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey had argued that the law is still enforceable. State attorneys claimed the law has not been active in decades only because prosecuting people for getting or performing abortions would have been illegal under Roe — but that’s no longer the case.

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.

Morrisey’s office said the Women’s Health Center’s arguments “are likely to fail and overlook basic history: the West Virginia Legislature’s attempt to protect innocent, unborn life to the greatest extent possible against the backdrop of Roe v. Wade.”

“It is counter-historical to say that the Legislature intended less protection for unborn life if Roe was overruled than if Roe never existed,” they said.

In 2021, the Women’s Health Center performed 1,304 abortions, according to court documents. The majority of patients — 87% — were from West Virginia, with most others from Ohio and Kentucky.

Attorney Kathleen Hartnett from the Cooley law firm argued for the clinic, along with attorneys from the ACLU of West Virginia, Mountain State Justice and others.