West Virginia’s governor Jim Justice, who was elected as a Democrat but is now a Republican, has signed into law the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, which requires doctors to provide standard medical care to any infant delivered alive after an attempted abortion procedure. The legislation is nearly the same as the federal born-alive bill, which 41 Democrats in the U.S. Senate blocked in a vote early last week.
West Virginia’s bill was cosponsored by several lawmakers, including one Democrat. It passed the state’s House of Delegates by an overwhelming majority, in a 92-6 vote, with the support of dozens of Democrats. It passed the state senate unanimously, again with the support of more than a dozen Democratic legislators.
With the governor’s signature, West Virginia became the latest of several states to enact a born-alive bill since the debate over care for infants began early last year in the wake of comments from Virginia’s Democratic governor Ralph Northam, who suggested that doctors should be permitted to let nearly aborted newborns die of neglect, at least in some circumstances.
Even so, there remain more than a dozen states that do not mandate care for infants who survive abortion or enforce any penalties for doctors who neglect those infants. Last January, New York repealed a provision that had extended all the protections of state law to infants who survive abortion.
West Virginia’s new law will take effect on May 19 of this year.
Editor’s note: This post has been updated to reflect that Justice is now a Republican.