CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A public hearing on a proposed ban of most Medicaid-funded abortions is set for the West Virginia House of Delegates chamber at 8:30 am on Monday.
House Bill 4012 aims to prevent Medicaid dollars from being spent on any abortions in West Virginia, except to save the life of the mother. In 2017, a single woman making up to about $17,000 a year — 150 percent of the federal poverty level — in West Virginia was eligible for a Medicaid-funded abortion based on medical necessity.
Supporters and opponents of the bill may speak at the public hearing Monday.
House Bill 4012 aims to prevent Medicaid dollars from being spent on any abortions in West Virginia, except to save the life of the mother. The bill was sent from the House health committee to House judiciary.
Only South Dakota has similar legislation, which is stricter than the federal Hyde Amendment.
The Hyde Amendment prevents federal dollars from being spent on abortions, except to save the life of the mother or in cases of rape or incest. During discussion of the bill during a House of Delegates health committee meeting last month, committee members denied a motion by Delegate Mike Pushkin, D-Kanawha, to add exceptions for rape and incest.
Delegate Barbara Fleischauer, D-Monongalia, also asked a series of questions, to which an attorney for the committee responded that women who are suicidal, women whose doctors say they are psychologically or emotionally unready for a child and women who are addicted to drugs would also not be eligible.
“While this bill would not prohibit a woman from obtaining an abortion, it will limit the amount of tax dollars that fund a procedure many West Virginians have a moral and conscientious objection to,” Delegate Kayla Kessinger, the bill’s lead sponsor, said in an email. “Women in West Virginia, regardless of their socio-economic background, deserve better than abortion, and have many choices when it comes to pregnancy, including adoption, if they feel as though they are not prepared to be mothers.”
Kessinger, R-Fayette, also said, “If women choose that motherhood is best for them and their child, the state and nonprofit organizations provide healthcare and benefits to women and their families.”
In 1993, the state Supreme Court overturned a state law banning Medicaid funding of abortion, ruling that Medicaid exclusions of abortion are unconstitutional. Then-Chief Justice Margaret Workman wrote in the opinion that the law “constitutes a discriminatory funding scheme which violates an indigent woman’s constitutional rights.” The West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources has not taken a side in the current debate, but sided with advocates for abortion rights at the time.
The bill would ban Medicaid funding of abortion by amending the definition of “medical services” in state law to exclude abortion.
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