Our Repro Health Hero of the Week is West Virginia Free, an organization leading an important fight right now in West Virginia to maintain state Medicaid coverage for abortion. Earlier this month state legislators introduced H. B. 3159, a bill that would end state Medicaid coverage of abortion, except in the cases of rape, incest, and life endangerment. West Virginia Free has launched a statewide campaign to defeat this bill and is winning! West Virginia Free has launched a statewide campaign to defeat this bill and is working with advocates across the state. Click here for more information about West Virginia Free and how to get involved in the campaign.
In addition to the fact that this bill would be incredibly harmful to women across the state, West Virginia Free and other opponents argue the bill is entirely unconstitutional. The West Virginia Supreme Court has already ruled that denying poor and low-income women funding for abortions violates the protections afforded them by the state Constitution (established in Women’s Health Center v. Panepinto).
We thank the advocates in West Virginia for fighting this horrible bill! Currently West Virginia is one of only seventeen states that go above and beyond the federal Hyde Amendment restrictions to provide much-needed state Medicaid coverage for abortions in most cases. On the federal level, the Hyde Amendment bans the use of federal Medicaid funds from being used to cover abortions, except in cases of rape, incest or when a woman’s life is in danger. States that provide Medicaid coverage for abortions in additional circumstances must use their own state-only dollars to provide that coverage.
Thanks to West Virginia Free for working to ensure West Virginia remains one of those states! To find out about coverage in your state and how to get involved in the fight to repeal the Hyde Amendment, join the Hyde 30 Years is Enough campaign!
By Myra Batchelder
Director of Low-Income Access Program
National Institute for Reproductive Health
This entry was posted
on Friday, March 27th, 2009 at 4:24 pm and is filed under Uncategorized.
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