West Virginia Unborn Child Protection from ‘Dismemberment Abortion’ Act (HB 4004)

HB 4004 would prohibit a person from performing or attempting to perform a “dismemberment abortion” unless it is necessary to prevent serious health risk to the mother.

The bill defines “dismemberment abortion” as:

…the purpose of causing the death of an unborn child, purposely to dismember a living unborn child and extract him or her one piece at a time from the uterus through use of clamps, grasping forceps, tongs, scissors, or similar instruments that, through the convergence of two rigid levers, slice, crush, or grasp a portion of the unborn child’s body to cut or rip it off.

Any person who violates this provision would be guilty of a felony and may be fined $10,000 and/or imprisoned for up to two years.

A person who knowingly performs such an abortion may also face injunction and civil damages.

This law targets a procedure known as dilation and evacuation (D and E), which is frequently used during second-trimester abortions. According to the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, an abortion using suction aspiration can be performed up to 14 weeks’ gestation, but after 14 weeks the D and E procedure must be used to perform an abortion. As such, dilation and evacuation bans, depending upon their language, may ban all surgical abortion past 14 weeks’ gestation. (Source.)

STATUS

Companion bill to SB 10.

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