SENATE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 13
(By Senators Weeks, Dempsey, Barnes, McKenzie and yoder)
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[Introduced February 20, 2006; referred to the Committee on
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 section fifty-seven, relating to providing
that no provision of the Constitution of West Virginia may be
construed to grant, offer, confer, bestow or imply a right of
a woman to an abortion.
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 six, 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. Women do not have a right to an abortion under any provision
of this Constitution.
No provision of this Constitution may be construed or
interpreted to grant, offer, confer, bestow or imply that a woman
has a right to 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 stating that the West
Virginia Constitution Does Not Grant a Right to an Abortion" and
the purpose of the proposed amendment is summarized as follows:
"To clarify that the West Virginia Constitution does not provide a
right for an abortion."
NOTE: The purpose of this resolution is to amend the State
Constitution to clarify that the Constitution does not provide a
right for an abortion.
This section is new; therefore, strike-throughs and
underscoring have been omitted.