SENATE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 3
(By Senator Hall)
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[Introduced February 11, 2009; 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
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 two thousand ten, which
proposed amendment is that article VI thereof be amended by adding thereto a new
section, designated 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 that the State 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.