Posted on 07/30/2022 6:03:38 PM PDT by marshmallow
State Attorney General Patrick Morrisey has pledged to appeal.
(LifeSiteNews) – Kanawha Conty Circuit Judge Tera Salango issued a temporary injunction Monday against enforcement of West Virginia’s 1849 law banning abortion, which was reactivated after the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision last month to overturn Roe v. Wade.
On June 29, West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey certified that the 170-year-old law criminalizing abortion “is on the books and enforceable” after the Supreme Court’s 5-4 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization to overturn Roe and restore the elected branches of government’s right to directly decide abortion policy.
The law declares that anyone who intentionally performs a surgical or chemical abortion “shall be guilty of a felony, and, upon conviction, shall be confined in the penitentiary not less than three nor more than 10 years.” Morrisey advised state lawmakers to hold a special legislative session to modernize and clarify aspects of the law, such as whether abortion-seeking women would face penalties.
West Virginia Republican Gov. Jim Justice announced such a session, but The Epoch Times reported that the judge opted to take matters into her own hands in response to a lawsuit by the state’s only abortion facility, Women’s Health Center of West Virginia.
Claiming that more recent state pro-life laws “hopelessly conflict with the criminal abortion ban,” Salango declared that it would be “inequitable” to allow the old law to be enforced for the time being.
“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 wrote. “Perhaps when it was drafted, that legislation was sufficient. However, in today’s world, it is simply too vague to be applied.”
(Excerpt) Read more at lifesitenews.com ...
I just looked it up. The United States Supreme Court outranks a county circuit court.
Who knew?
West Virginia became a state in 1863.
So, was this originally a Virginia statute?
Math is hard.
...and racist...
West Virginia broke away from Virginia and became a state during the civil war. So how can they have an 1849 law to enforce?
Yes... VERY fascinating research!
The state of West Virginia IS the state of Virginia!!!! When Virginia seceded from the Union, the loyal counties met in Kenewa to reaffirm their allegience to the Union as Virginians, and so they continued to use the name, “Virginia.” But when the insurrectionist territory of Virginia was reconstructed, West Virginia agreed to change its name to avoid confusion, originally selecting New Virginia.
I had never heard of the "New Virginia" proposal before. I had read that Kanawha had been proposed as a name for the new state.
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