Committee passes more stringent adolescent abortion bill, sends to floor

The state Senate Health and Human Resources Committee decided Wednesday evening to amend an abortion bill so that it once again requires minors to go to court for access to abortion.

The original version of the bill, House Bill 2002, removed the ability of a physician to waive parental notification before another physician performed an abortion on an adolescent. Under current law, a physician can find that it is in the minor’s best interest not to tell their parents, or the physician can find that the minor is mature enough to make that decision. The bill would have required minors to be emancipated or go to court for access to abortion.

After sexual abuse survivors and women’s health advocates spoke against the bill during a public hearing, a House of Delegates subcommittee amended the bill so that most physicians would not be able to waive parental notification, but that psychiatrists and psychologists would be able to do so. The subcommittee included the bill sponsor, Delegate Kayla Kessinger, R-Fayette.

Margaret Chapman Pomponio, executive director of reproductive rights organization WV Free, called the new bill a “compromise” while representatives of West Virginians for Life, at least one of whom was present during the subcommittee meeting, said they were unaware of what was in the amended bill. The organization supported the original version and supporters have accused doctors who provide physician waivers of enabling abuse.

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