October 2014

Dear Friends,

In the last legislative session, West Virginians for Life celebrated a great victory: the passage of the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act that protects unborn babies from the terrible pain of abortion by banning abortion after 20 weeks, when medical science has demonstrated they can fully feel pain.  It was vetoed by Governor Tomblin and our pro-abortion opponents are fighting back.

WV Free has funded a poll and the Director, Margaret Chapman Pomponio, claims that 55% of West Virginians would strongly oppose future efforts of the legislature to pass the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act.  She said, “…the people of this state don’t want politicians wasting time on regressive political attacks that hurt West Virginia women.”  Of course, “the people” said no such thing.

This does not reflect the actual findings of the poll. First of all, according to Hoppy Kercheval of WV MetroNews, the telephone poll consisted of only 387 likely voters with a margin of error of +/- 4.98%.  Second, the question in the poll about the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act was worded in the following way:

“In West Virginia fewer than 10 women annually have an abortion past 20 weeks into a pregnancy.  However, earlier this year, the Legislature spent a considerable amount of time debating and passing a law prohibiting abortions past 20 weeks.  Since so few women have an abortion past 20 weeks each year, do you agree or disagree lawmakers should continue to make this a priority?”

WV Free is clearly afraid to ask West Virginia voters whether they support killing babies using methods that cause excruciating pain. If they had, they would likely have found what other polls have shown:  that people support banning abortions after babies can feel pain.  A national poll from March, 2013 found that 64% support such a bill.

WV Free found that 45% of West Virginians would want legislators to make the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act a priority, even though they had not been reminded of the serious and painful consequences of not doing so. Given the +/- 5% error factor, it would be more accurate to say that approximately 50% of the people of West Virginia believe that protecting even 10 innocent babies a year from a painful death should be a top priority of the 2015 WV State Legislature.

We will have to work against formidable opposition, but, with your help, we will succeed.

Sincerely, for life,

Wanda Franz, Ph.D., President