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CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — Lawmakers are shipping Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin a bill that bans abortion after 20 weeks, despite the Democrat's veto of a similar proposal last year over constitutionality concerns.
With little debate, West Virginia senators cleared the ban Wednesday. The House of Delegates passed it overwhelmingly earlier this month after a more heated back-and-forth.
The action moves to Tomblin, an anti-abortion advocate who vetoed the bill by the Democratic-run Legislature last year. He has said he would veto the same bill again if the now-Republican majority approved it.
The measure passed the Senate 29-5, with most Democrats in favor. Lawmakers only need a simple majority to overturn a veto.
The proposal bans abortions after 20 weeks, with some exemptions for women in medical emergencies. Rape and incest aren't exempted, despite Democrats' effort to try to include them.
Democrats also weren't able to amend the cutoff to 22 weeks.
The proposal would also prohibit abortions when women have psychological conditions that could lead them to hurt or kill themselves.
Even for abortions that would be exempted, the bill requires doctors to terminate pregnancies in a way that gives "the best opportunity for the fetus to survive," unless the process would kill or irreparably harm the mother.
Doctors and other medical workers who perform banned abortions could face discipline from a medical board, and potentially lose their licenses. Women who get abortions wouldn't be punished.
The bill is based on the assertion that fetuses can feel pain at 20 weeks, which is disputed in medical research.
The West Virginia chapter of the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists opposes the bill, saying it doesn't support legislation not based on sound science.
In 2011, the last year with data available, there were six abortions after 20 weeks in West Virginia, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Both bills resemble a law struck down in Arizona in 2013 that the U.S. Supreme Court later decided not to reconsider.
Ten states have some version of a 20-week ban, according to the abortion rights nonprofit Guttmacher Institute.
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