Global Courant 2023-04-18 22:14:48
An abortion provider on Monday dropped a two-month-old federal lawsuit seeking to overturn West Virginia’s near-total ban.
The West Virginia Women’s Health Center said in a lawsuit that its primary physician determined he will not be able to resume abortion care in the state “due to intervening professional obligations.” Another doctor who provided abortion care at West Virginia’s only abortion clinic prior to the passage of a law last year is no longer available, the filing said.
While developments have not necessarily challenged the case, the plaintiffs “determined that it is in their interest and in the interest of the judicial economy to voluntarily dismiss this case without prejudice at this time,” according to the filing in federal court in Charleston. .
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The lawsuit filed Feb. 1 named the president and secretary of the West Virginia Board of Medicine as defendants. It alleged that the law was unconstitutional, irrational and caused irreparable harm to the clinic and its patients.
Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, who intervened on behalf of the state, said: “My office stands ready to fully defend this clearly constitutional law if this lawsuit is brought again, or against any other legal challenge.”
Katie Quiñonez, executive director of the Women’s Health Center of West Virginia, stands in front of the center’s sign in Charleston on Feb. 25, 2022. The center has dropped the federal lawsuit to overturn the state’s near-total ban on abortion. (AP Photo/Chris Jackson, File)
The lawsuit had called for the ban on abortion to be stopped while the case was heard. Republican Governor Jim Justice on Sept. 16 signed into law a bill passed earlier that week, making West Virginia the second state to enact a law banning the procedure since the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in June overturned its constitutional protections.
The Charleston clinic suspended abortions shortly after lawmakers passed the law, providing women in West Virginia with resources to book out-of-state appointments and funding to help cover travel costs and the procedure, said Katie Quiñonez, the clinic’s executive director.
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Last month, Quiñonez announced she will serve as executive director of an abortion clinic set to open in June in Cumberland, Maryland, close to the West Virginia border.
West Virginia law requires abortions to be performed by a physician in a hospital — a provision that at least two Republican lawmakers said was intended to stop abortions at the Women’s Health Center, which had been providing the procedure since 1976. Under the law, providers who perform illegal abortions can face up to 10 years in prison.
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The state’s abortion ban has exemptions for medical emergencies and for victims of rape and incest up to eight weeks of pregnancy for adults and 14 weeks for those under 18. Victims must report their abuse to the police 48 hours before the procedure. Minors can report to the police or a doctor, who must then tell the police.
More than a dozen states now have abortion bans, though most were approved before the Supreme Court ruling and took effect once the court overruled the constitutional right to terminate a pregnancy.
