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. Bob Bastress, a constitutional law professor at West Virginia University who is married to Fleischauer, said the bill would still be unconstitutional, because it “violates the principles set forth in the WV Supreme Court’s decision.”
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