SENATE JOINT RESOLUTION NO

SENATE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 11
(By Senator Hall)
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[Introduced February 11, 2008; referred to the Committee on the 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 clarifying that the Constitution does not require the state to pay for any abortion; further clarifying that the Constitution does not secure or protect a right to 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 two thousand eight, 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. No provision of this Constitution secures or protects a right to abortion and nothing in it requires the State to pay for abortions.

No provision of this Constitution secures or protects a right to abortion and the provisions of this Constitution do not require the State to pay for 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 clarifying that "No provision of this Constitution secures or protects a right to abortion and nothing in it requires the state to pay for abortions" and the purpose of the proposed amendment is summarized as follows: "Clarification that the Constitution does not secure or protect the right to abortion or require the state to pay for an abortion."

NOTE: The purpose of this resolution is to amend the State Constitution to clarify that the Constitution does not require the state to pay for an abortion and to provide that nothing in the Constitution secures or protects a right to abortion.

This section is new; therefore, strike-throughs and underscoring have been omitted.