SENATE JOINT RESOLUTION NO

SENATE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 2
(By Senators Smith, Weeks and Minear)
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[Introduced January 16, 2004; referred to the Committee on the Judiciary.]

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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 57, relating to providing that the Constitution of West Virginia does not grant, offer, confer, bestow or imply a right of a woman to an 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 2004, which proposed amendment is that article VI thereof be amended by adding thereto a new section, designated section 57, to read as follows:
ARTICLE VI. THE LEGISLATURE.

§57. Abortion not authorized under any provision of this Constitution.

No provision of this Constitution may be construed or interpreted to grant, offer, confer, bestow or imply a right to an abortion.

Resolved further, That in accordance with the provisions of article 11, chapter 3 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.