Sources of Revenue:

General Fund,Special Fund

Legislation creates:

A New Fund

Fiscal Note Summary

Effect this measure will have on costs and revenues of state government.

The purpose of this bill is to create the "West Virginia Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act" that asserts a compelling state interest in protecting the lives of unborn children from the stage at which substantial medical evidence indicates that they are capable of feeling pain. The bill prohibits abortion of unborn child of twenty or more weeks post-fertilization age. The Department of Health and Human Resources (Department) through the Bureau for Public Health estimates that the cost to fund the proposed legislation's publication requirements can be absorbed within the Department's current operating budget. The estimated costs of the proposed legislation consists of staff time in developing and issuing a public report providing statistics concerning the previous calendar year's data, as well as the cost of printing. No additional funding would be necessary for the Department to comply with the proposed legislation. Section §16-2M-10(a) of this bill creates a special revenue fund known as the West Virginia Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act Litigation Fund for the purpose of providing funds to pay for any costs and expenses incurred by the State Attorney General in relation to actions surrounding defense of this law. Estimated costs would need to be provided by State Attorney General.

Fiscal Note Detail

Effect of Proposal	Fiscal Year
Effect of Proposal	2013 Increase/Decrease (use"-")	2014 Increase/Decrease (use"-")	Fiscal Year (Upon Full Implementation)
1. Estmated Total Cost	0	0	0
Personal Services	0	0	0
Current Expenses	0	0	0
Repairs and Alterations	0	0	0
Assets	0	0	0
Other	0	0	0
2. Estimated Total Revenues	0	0	0

Explanation of above estimates (including long-range effect):

Please explain increases and decreases in personal services, current expenses, etc., including assumptions and data source and delineation between start-up and ongoing costs. Please also include a long-range schedule of costs and revenues if fiscal impact is expected to vary in future years.

Memorandum

There are technical problems with some of the language in the proposed legislation ; the definition of abortion is not the same as Induced Termination of Pregnancy (ITOP ) in current Vital Statistics Code. The proposed bill considers the surgical removal of fetal remains or from a spontaneous fetal death as an abortion. That is specifically excluded under the definition of ITOP and the event may be a reportable fetal death. The proposed bill also appears to include as abortions, surgeries to save the life of a woman who is experiencing an ectopic (tubal) pregnancy. That is also specifically excluded from the ITOP definition as the pregnancy must be in the uterus. The hardest part about implementing the proposed language is implementing it in a manner that does not interfere with the national standard reporting of ITOPs to the Center for Disease Control for inclusion in national statistics but yet still meets the intent of the bill. On page 10, section §16-2m-6(e) refers to the Department of Health and Human Services. The Department believes this reference is intended to refer to the Department of Health and Human Resources and thus should be changed. On page 13, section §16-2M-10(a) of this bill creates a special revenue fund known as the West Virginia Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act Litigation Fund for the purpose of providing funds to pay for any costs and expenses incurred by the State Attorney General in relation to actions surrounding defense of this law. Section §16-2M-10(b) requires the Department of Health and Human Resources to maintain this fund. The Department estimates that placing responsibility for maintenance of the Fund within the Department, while providing funds to the State Attorney General could prove difficult from a logistics viewpoint.

Person submitting Fiscal Note: Rocco S. Fucillo
Email Address: dhhrbudgetoffice@wv.gov