Beckley Register-Herald – With Roe v. Wade overturned, abortion is likely to become even more restricted or altogether banned in West Virginia. Indeed, the fall of Roe will create a stark patchwork of abortion legality and access in states across the country. This will exacerbate scenarios wherein people with means will continue to have access to abortion because they have the ability to afford the time and money costs of long travel to a state where abortion is legal, including taking time off from work, finding child care, navigating waiting periods, and covering the cost of the abortion itself. It will primarily be for poorer people with fewer resources that abortion will become (even more) inaccessible.
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In addition to implementing several abortion restrictions in recent years, West Virginia lawmakers have also limited access to and largely failed to invest in family economic and health supports, placing those who become pregnant in often perilous health and economic conundrums where abortion is inaccessible at the same time as family, health and economic supports that make parenting possible are inadequate. Because of this stark reality, abortion access will become – and already is – an economic issue.
