SENATE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 11
(By Senator Hall)
_______
[Introduced February 11, 2008; referred to the Committee on the
Judiciary; and then to the Committee on Finance.]
______
Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the State of West
Virginia, amending article VI thereof by adding thereto a new
section, designated section 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
the year two thousand eight, which proposed amendment is that
article VI thereof be amended by adding thereto a new section, designated section 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 the state to 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.