West Virginia AG Files Opposition to Injunction Against State's Abortion Law

March 1, 2023

Mountaineer News

Women's Health

CHARLESTON, WV - West Virginia’s Attorney General wants a U.S. District Court to refuse to grant an injunction against the state’s abortion law.

West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey was recently granted the ability to intervene in a lawsuit by Women’s Health Center of West Virginia against the president and secretary of the West Virginia Board of Medicine.

The suit says the law violates the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and challenges a stipulation in House Bill 302 that requires all abortions in the state to take place in a hospital.

The Women’s Health Center says it has safely provided abortions in an outpatient setting for nearly 50 years.

“The Supreme Court was very clear when it overturned Roe v. Wade – abortion policy is returned to the states and their elected representatives,” Morrisey said. “This law is clearly constitutional and we stand ready to defend it.”

Morrisey filed his opposition to a preliminary injunction in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia and argued the plaintiffs don’t have standing and they are unlikely to succeed on the merits of the complaint, the standard for a judge awarding a preliminary injunction.

The American Civil Liberties Union of West Virginia is handling the case for the Women’s Health Center and stated it believes that HB302 was rushed through in less than 24 hours after Roe v. Wade was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court. It said West Virginians have been forced to travel out of state to receive care.

“The process by which this law was forced through is one of the least transparent in recent memory,” said Aubrey Sparks, ACLU of West Virginia managing attorney. “Every day that this cruel law remains on the books is a day that West Virginians are being denied critical, lifesaving health care.”