To:   Delegate Bill Hamilton   PO Box 1192   Buckhannon WV 26201

We want unborn babies to be protected; we want West Virginia's abortion clinics to be closed.

The WV Supreme Court made that more difficult in 1993, with its 3-2 Panepinto decision, which says the WV Constitution provides a right to abortion, and requires that tax dollars be paid to abortionists.

Every year since 2002 Life Gauge has introduced in the House of Delegates a Constitutional Amendment to overturn the decision.  The amendment:  "Nothing in this Constitution secures or protects a right to abortion or requires the funding of any abortion."

That would overturn Panepinto . . . would allow us to protect babies when Roe v Wade is abolished . . . would allow our state to stop paying for abortions now.

For eight years, this amendment died in committee without consideration.  But on Wednesday, February 24, 2010, the amendment was brought to a vote on the House floor.  The leaders of the House responded with a procedural motion, to kill it.  The procedural motion won, and the amendment died, by a vote of 64-34.  But for the first time this amendment has a recorded vote -- yes or no -- for each member of the House.

Intimidation is the reason for many of those 64 votes.  Some delegates think they must obey the Speaker of the House.  To hide that, they use the excuse of "sticking with the committee process." The committee process is not a solution; it is the problem.  Year after year, it is used to kill good bills that protect babies.

In 2010, you did not make the motion, but you did vote for it.  That was a good vote.

Next year, you are asked to do two things: (1) On the fourth Wednesday of 2011, make the motion to discharge a committee, in order to bring the amendment to the floor for a vote.  Tom Louisos did this in 2010.  We need other delegates to co-sponsor it with him in 2011, or, if he cannot make the motion, we need other delegates to do it.  (2) Vote for the amendment.  Vote against any procedural move that kills it.

The people of Upshur County, who make up the 39th House District, will be watching to see what happens in February of 2011, on the fourth Wednesday.