According to West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrissey, a law enacted in 1849, before West Virginia was an official state, which made termination of a pregnancy a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison, is now in effect as a result of the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision. This law was enacted 71 years before women got the right to vote — 107 years before the West Virginia Constitution gave women the right to serve on juries, 125 years before a woman had the right to obtain a credit card without having a husband as a co-signor and 129 years before it became unlawful for an employer to discriminate against a woman because she was pregnant.

It took a long, long time for women to be recognized as human beings who have the same right as males to make their own decisions about their lives. The 1973 Roe v. Wade decision was an important part of that progress, as it assured women of the right, as least for a period of time of their pregnancies, to make their own health care decisions. But just last month, the Supreme Court took away federal protection of that basic human right. This decision, it is said, returns to state legislatures the question of how to regulate the individual health care decisions of women. Women are once again on the road to second-class citizenship.

I understand, and respect, that some people have a sincere religious belief that an independent human life begins at conception. But that is not the sincere religious belief of everyone. Many people, relying on Scripture, have the sincere religious belief that an independent human life begins when the baby takes its first breath. I have seen no willingness by the majority of our Legislature to recognize that belief. Yet, that same majority was quick to state that, in the midst of a pandemic, a person need not wear a mask to prevent the spread of disease to others, if he had a sincere religious belief against wearing a mask.

Pregnancy is never without risk to a woman. An exception allowing termination of a pregnancy to protect the life of a woman is really no exception. Must there be a 50 percent chance that the woman will die to come within the exception? A 60 percent chance? And how can that chance be determined with sufficient certainty so neither the doctor nor the woman have to fear prosecution?

Pregnancy is especially dangerous for women over 40. Yet there is no proposal to require a man to determine whether he is risking his partner’s life by taking Viagra. All the risk is on the woman. Nor is there any recognition of the possible debilitating mental health implications of a pregnancy for a woman living in stressful circumstances.

That fact is, no one who has not been pregnant can really understand the effects of pregnancy. Our Legislature needs more than just a couple of people who have that understanding.

Elizabeth Binns-Roemer, of Martinsburg