SENATE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 13
(By Senators Hall and Sypolt)
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[Introduced February 22, 2010; referred to the Committee on the
Judiciary; and then to the Committee on Finance.]
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Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the State of West
Virginia, amending article VI thereof by adding thereto a new
section, designated fifty-seven, relating to clarifying that
the Constitution does not require the state to pay for any
abortion; further clarifying that the Constitution does not
secure or protect a right to abortion; 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
2010, which proposed amendment is that article VI thereof be
amended by adding thereto a new section, designated fifty-seven, to
read as follows:
ARTICLE VI. THE LEGISLATURE.
§57. No provision of this Constitution secures or protects a right
to abortion and nothing in it requires the state to pay for
abortions.
No provision of this Constitution secures or protects a right
to abortion and the provisions of this Constitution do not require
the state to pay for an abortion.
Resolved further, That in accordance with the provisions of
article eleven, chapter three of the Code of West Virginia, 1931,
as amended, such proposed amendment is hereby numbered "Amendment
No. 1" and designated as the amendment clarifying that "No
provision of this Constitution secures or protects a right to
abortion and nothing in it requires that the state pay for
abortions" and the purpose of the proposed amendment is summarized
as follows: "Clarification that the Constitution does not secure
or protect the right to abortion or require the state to pay for an
abortion."
NOTE: The purpose of this resolution is to amend the State
Constitution to clarify that the Constitution does not require the
state to pay for an abortion and to provide that nothing in the
Constitution secures or protects a right to abortion.
This section is new; therefore, strike-throughs and
underscoring have been omitted.