Women's Health Center of West Virginia v. Sheth

CHARLESTON, W.V. – A West Virginia abortion facility told a federal district court Monday that it is dropping its lawsuit challenging the state’s health and safety regulations designed to protect unborn lives and women’s health.

West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, assisted by attorneys from Alliance Defending Freedom, has been defending the law, asking the court to leave abortion policy in the hands of the state’s elected representatives.

“As West Virginia’s first pro-life attorney general, I stand firm in the belief that it is our duty to protect innocent life. We need to save as many innocent babies’ lives as legally possible,” Morrisey said. “I am proud to stand for the most vulnerable of our society and the sanctity of life. My office stands ready to defend this clearly constitutional law to the fullest should this lawsuit be refiled, or against any other legal challenge.”

“West Virginia has a strong and compelling interest in protecting unborn life, and maternal health and safety. This baseless challenge to the state’s pro-life laws never should have been brought in the first place,” added ADF Senior Counsel Denise Harle, director of the ADF Center for Life. “Abortionists who file lawsuits of this sort frequently do so because they would rather make a profit off of vulnerable women rather than see them have the real health care and resources they need, but that effort here faced serious problems because West Virginia’s law is on solid legal ground.”

In 2022, after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, West Virginia largely replaced its previous pro-life law with the Unborn Child Protection Act, protecting unborn life from abortion in most circumstances. In this case, Women’s Health Center of West Virginia v. Sheth, the abortion facility and one of its abortionists challenged two of the state’s health-and-safety regulations: one that requires surgical abortions to be performed in a hospital, and another that requires an abortion to be performed by a licensed medical professional who has West Virginia hospital privileges.

Morrisey and ADF attorneys explained to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia, Charleston Division, that West Virginia’s legal statutes are specifically designed to protect women’s health, and that “even under Roe and Casey, an abortion provider had no constitutional right to perform an abortion using his or her preferred methods.”

In a still-ongoing separate case, ADF attorneys are serving as co-counsel alongside Morrisey to defend the state’s pro-life laws from a legal challenge brought by an abortion drug manufacturer.

• Pronunciation guide: Harle (HAR’-lee)

Alliance Defending Freedom is an alliance-building, non-profit legal organization committed to protecting religious freedom, free speech, parental rights, and the sanctity of life.

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