WEST virginia legislature

2023 regular session

Introduced

House Joint Resolution 25

By Delegates Worrell, Mazzocchi, Dillon, Kirby and Ridenour

February 9, 2023

Referred to the Committee on Health and Human Resources then to the Committee on the Judiciary

Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the State of West Virginia amending Article III thereof by adding thereto a new section, designated section twenty-three,  relating to the right to refuse any medical treatment, injection, device, vaccine, or prophylactic; numbering and designating such proposed amendment; and providing a summarized statement of the purpose of such proposed amendment.

Resolved by the Legislature of West Virginia, two thirds of the members elected to each house agreeing thereto:

That the question of ratification or rejection of an amendment to the Constitution of the State of West Virginia be submitted to the voters of the state at the next general election to be held in the year 2024, which proposed amendment is that Article III thereof, be amended by adding thereto a new section, designated Section twenty, to read as follows:

ARTICLE III. BILL OF RIGHTS.

§3-23. Right to refuse medical procedures.

The right of a person to refuse any medical procedure, medical treatment, device, vaccine, or prophylactic, shall not be questioned or interfered with in any manner. The right of a person to public accommodation and equal protection of the law shall not be denied or infringed upon because of the exercise of the rights contained in this section.

Resolved further, That in accordance with the provisions of article eleven, chapter three of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, such amendment is hereby numbered "Amendment 1" and designated as the "Right to Refuse Medical Procedures" and the purpose of the proposed amendment is summarized as follows: "The purpose of this amendment is to recognize the right to refuse medical treatments, injections, devices, vaccines, or prophylactics and to further provide equal protection under the law and the right to public accommodation for persons that exercise this right."

NOTE: The purpose of this resolution is to add a new section to Article III of the West Virginia Constitution, to recognize the right to refuse medical treatments, injections, devices, vaccines, or prophylactics and to further provide equal protection under the law and the right to public accommodation for persons that exercise this right.

Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from a heading or the present law and underscoring indicates new language that would be added.