A West Virginia law regarding political advertising law was challenged last week by an anti-abortion group. The group, West Virginians for Life sought an injunction, barring the laws impact on their proposed campaign, reported the Daily Women’s Health Policy Report. The group seeks to advertise a 1993 Medicaid decision by Margaret Workman, a candidate for the state Supreme Court.
Workman wrote the opinion in Women’s Health center of West Virginia vs. Panepinto, a case that addressed Medicare recipients’ access to reproductive health options. The ruling stated that, “when state government seeks to act ‘for the common benefit, protection and security of the people’ in providing medical care for the poor, it has an obligation to do so in a neutral manner so as not to infringe upon the constitutional rights of our citizens.”
West Virginians for Life seeks to say that Workman’s ruling “requires West Virginia to pay for abortion for any reason for women on Medicaid” in their ads, according to the West Virginia Record. Workman told the West Virginia Record that this statement is “a huge misstatement of fact…the state does not have to pay for any reproductive choices for anyone. Once the state decides that it wants to pay, then it has to do so in a manner that treats everyone equally.”
