The West Virginia State Legislature was summoned by Governor Jim Justice to assemble in Charleston on July 25, for a special session to take up his proposal to cut the state income tax by an average of 10 percent.

As I and other members began arriving in Charleston the day before the special session, rumors began to circulate that we would also be addressing the subject of abortion the next day. This came as a surprise, as the governor had said, as late as the previous Friday, that abortion would definitely not be on the agenda (which he controls).

When we met at noon on the 25th, abortion was indeed on the agenda. We discovered that a half dozen strongly anti-abortion legislators had told the governor that they would not support his tax proposal if he did not place abortion on the special session agenda. Justice caved.

When the United States Supreme Court overruled the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision guaranteeing the right to abortion on June 24, abortion opponents suggested that West Virginia pass a law banning abortion. Since the Legislature is not scheduled to go into regular session until Jan. 2023, the only occasion to pass such a law, before the general election in November, would have been in a special session.

With the overturning of Roe v. Wade, Attorney General Patrick Morrisey argued that an 1882 law criminalizing abortion, except to save the life of the pregnant woman, was now alive. Many other lawyers disagreed, saying the controlling statute was one passed in 2015 banning abortion after the 20th week of pregnancy. I am not a lawyer, but every legislative lawyer I’ve known (several dozen) has told me that the law relating to any subject is the last statute passed by the Legislature. A circuit court decision affirmed that position, and now we await a ruling on it by the State Supreme Court.

The House of Delegates passed the governor’s tax plan, which I opposed because it gives a much bigger tax break to high income people than to middle and lower income folks. The House also passed a bill banning abortion, with two exceptions: if an abortion was necessary to save the life of the pregnant woman and if, within the first 14 weeks of pregnancy, an abortion was necessary, due to cases of rape or incest. The bill also included criminal penalties for abortion providers. I spoke against the bill, and voted against it.

The Senate killed the tax plan, and amended the abortion bill. The amendments were to reduce the 14-week period to six weeks, and to eliminate the criminal penalties. The Senate then adjourned to “the call of the chair” (whenever the presiding officer decides). The House did likewise on July 29, after requesting a conference committee be appointed.

As this is being written, a few days before publication, we’ve heard nothing about when we might reassemble. Speculation centers on Sept. 10-12, when we’re scheduled to be in Charleston anyway for interim meetings.

The governor’s tax plan was likely dead from day one of the special session. And perhaps the abortion referendum in Kansas a few weeks ago has driven the Republican legislative leadership even farther apart on that issue.

John Doyle is a delegate for the West Virginia District 67. He can be reached at johndoyle@wvhouse.gov.