The West Virginia legislature has long wanted to ban abortion in almost all cases, and now that the U.S. Supreme Court has given them the go-ahead to do so with their ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, lawmakers in the Mountain State are busy passing laws to punish women and doctors.
But at a public hearing on a bill to severely restrict abortion in West Virginia on Wednesday, a 12-year-old girl gave the state legislature a searing condemnation of their actions, the Washington Post reports:
After West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice (R) asked lawmakers to “clarify and modernize” the state’s abortion laws to reflect the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade, the Republican-controlled legislature is considering an abortion bill that would not only prohibit the procedure in most cases but also allow for the prosecution of physicians who perform abortions.
So when dozens of people spoke out against the bill at the West Virginia House of Delegates, Addison Gardner was among the speakers given 45 seconds each to plead their case to lawmakers.
In those 45 seconds, Gardner spoke eloquently and with conviction, telling lawmakers:
“My education is very important to me, and I plan on doing great things in life,” she said, noting that she plays varsity volleyball and runs track at Buffalo Middle School in Kenova, W.Va. She then asked a series of questions to the much older lawmakers regarding the lack of protections in House Bill 302: “If a man decides that I’m an object and does unspeakable and tragic things to me, am I, a child, supposed to birth and carry another child? Am I to put my body through the physical trauma of pregnancy? Am I to suffer the mental implications, a child who had no say in what was being done with my body?”
She added, “Some here say they are pro-life. What about my life? Does my life not matter to you?”
As you’d expect, none of the legislators who voted in support of the abortion restriction bill — which passed by a vote of 69-23 — had the decency to respond to Addison Gardner. And that alone tells us what cowards they are and just how little they care about children once they’re no longer in a woman’s womb.
The hypocrisy of the so-called “pro-life” crowd is off the damn charts, and their blatant disregard for the rights of others is proof that they only care about scoring political points, not doing what’s actually best for their citizens.
Addison Gardner is a hero. Here’s hoping one day she’s sitting in the West Virginia legislature and restoring the rights her predecessors took away from her and thousands of others.