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West Virginia Senate passes bills restricting access to abortion meds, requiring football helmet covers

State Senate President Randy Smith, R-Preston, presides over the vote Tuesday on Senate Bill 85. (Photo Courtesy/WV Legislative Photography)

CHARLESTON – The West Virginia Senate worked to get some of its remaining bills across the finish line Tuesday, the day before the deadline for bills to cross over to the next chamber.

The Senate passed 13 bills Tuesday ahead of today’s Crossover Day deadline, including Senate Bill 85, prohibiting the use or sale of abortifacients, and Senate Bill 585, creating the Cohen Craddock Student Athlete Safety Act.

SB 85 would prohibit the mailing, placement in commerce, prescribing and dissemination without a valid prescription of abortifacients, defined as “any chemical or drug prescribed or dispensed with the intent of causing an abortion.” The bill passed the Senate in a 28-5 vote, sending it to the House of Delegates.

According to the bill, a person or entity found guilty of performing or attempting to perform an abortion with an abortifacient, a felony, could be sentenced to up to 10 years in prison. SB 85 sets a mandatory license revocation as a penalty for medically licensed individuals who violate the law and provides for a private cause of action to be brought and potential attorney general enforcement.

“This important legislation is designed to protect life in West Virginians and stop the practice of abortifacients being sent and delivered to West Virginia residents without a lawful prescription,” said Senate Government Organization Committee Chairwoman Patricia Rucker, R-Jefferson.

The Legislature passed a bill during a 2022 special session banning all abortions in the state unless a licensed medical professional’s reasonable judgment calls for the procedure or other exceptions, such as in instances of sexual assault or incest. The bill only allows abortions to be performed by medical or osteopathic doctors at licensed medical facilities, such as hospitals.

Opponents of SB 85 focused on a provision allowing for civil actions to be brought by both the Attorney General’s Office and women who receive the abortifacient. State Sen. Eric Tarr, R-Putnam, criticized his Republican colleagues for passing several bills during the session to allow for multiple causes of action, undoing some of the tort reform efforts of previous years.

“Every time this body (or) the Legislature puts in the statute a private cause of action, we lose jobs,” Tarr said. “Locators, when they look at states on where they might consider to locate their tens, hundreds and thousands of jobs, they look across and look at how many private causes of action are on the books. And we seem pretty adept at bringing those to the body this year.”

SB 585, the Cohen Craddock Student Athlete Safety Act, mandates the use of impact-reducing soft-shell helmet covers during high school and middle school football practices starting July 1, 2026. The bill creates the Student Athlete Safety Advisory Committee to evaluate safety protocols and equipment, and the Cohen Craddock Memorial Grant Program and Fund to assist schools in purchasing necessary safety equipment.

The bill is named for 13-year-old Cohen Craddock, an eighth-grade student at Madison Middle School in Boone County who died in 2024 following a head injury during football practice. The lead sponsor, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Mike Stuart, said the bill will save lives.

“This will, by its very nature, if we’re successful in this effort, transform the way we view safety for our student athletes across West Virginia communities that have trouble just buying old helmets to put on their players,” said Stuart, R-Kanawha. “Now, we’ll have a source of grant funding that they can attach to, to the extent it’s available to help with safety efforts to protect our boys and girls all across the state of West Virginia.”

Steven Allen Adams can be reached at sadams@newsandsentinel.com

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