Democratic state legislators are backing a bill to eliminate abortion restrictions in West Virginia.
The Associated Press reported that at a news conference on Monday, co-sponsor Del. Danielle Walker called restrictions on abortions “a barrier to safe, affordable, accessible health care.”
“It is racist. Sit in that uncomfortable moment,” she said, according to the outlet. “It affects people of color tremendously. It affects our neighbors in rural communities. It affects low-income wage-earning West Virginians, and it upsets me to my core.”
Walker, a woman who has personally had an abortion, also peddled transgender ideology, declaring that “abortion can be for the following pronouns: She/her, he/him, they and them.”
Del. Evan Hansen is the lead sponsor for the bill, according to the AP.
State Sen. Bob Beach said that he is putting forward a Senate version of the same proposal, according to wvnews.com.
While the bill will almost certainly be unable to make it through the state’s Republican-controlled legislature, it does showcase the kinds of policies Democrats aspire to enact.
The AP listed various measures that would be repealed under the proposal: “House Bill 4382 would repeal the mandatory 24-hour waiting period and counseling for abortion patients; West Virginia’s 20-week abortion ban; restrictions on dilation and evacuation — the most commonly used abortion method in the second trimester of abortion; the ‘born-alive’ bill, which penalizes physicians who don’t provide medical care to a baby born after an abortion attempt; the state’s telehealth ban on medication abortion and criminal penalties for abortion,” the outlet reported.
The proposal provides a stark contrast between pro-choice liberals and pro-life conservatives who have been pushing for pro-life policies and are hoping to see Roe v. Wade overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court.