West Virginia – Deep Left Field

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?”

https://twitter.com/ThePowerofOne98/status/1552385246439645192?s=20&t=1x7WxQ0BpVak-WP5_ayB-A

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.

Ruth and James Jones of Charleston, West Virginia, are raising their two grandchildren, ages 10 and 17, and are struggling to get by.

James works part-time as a cook at Applebee’s and Ruth is on Social Security.

So it was a blessing to both of them when the child tax credit was put forth by the Biden administration and made part of the American Recovery Act, according to the Washington Post:

“Like thousands of other West Virginians, their financial burden has been eased since July by monthly federal payments, championed by the Biden administration, to support families with children. Now, however, those funds — which total $500 a month — could vanish if lawmakers agree to the demands of their own senator, Joe Manchin.”

James, who is now 64, has a message for his senator:

“We want Manchin to take a little bit more active role in protecting us as far as West Virginians. We’re not a bunch of deadbeats. We work for a living and we’re due.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHdlUm-_3os

That same anger mixed with pain is being played out across the state, with Beth Zarate, president and chief executive of Catholic Charities West Virginia, noting:

“For some of our clients, this is keeping them above water right now. West Virginia just has so many challenges. We struggle with jobs, we struggle with our people leaving our state for other jobs. So the Child Tax Credit has been huge.”

A month ago, Manchin said he couldn’t support extending the child tax credits for another year:

“There’s no work requirements whatsoever. There’s no education requirements whatsoever for better skillsets. Don’t you think, if we’re going to help the children, that the people should make some effort?”

The Child Tax Credit has been especially helpful in West Virginia, which remains one of the poorest states in the country. And the purpose of the program is to help lift children and their parents out of poverty, which polls show is supported by a the vast majority of Americans:

In West Virginia, 170,000 children became newly eligible under the tax credit expansion, which was included in Biden’s $1.9 trillion stimulus package passed in March. The changes to the tax credit raised the maximum benefit from $2,000 to $3,600 per child per year and dramatically expanded the share of poor families receiving the credit. In July, the food insecurity rate in West Virginia households with children dropped from 11.6 percent to 8.4 percent, and in September a survey found 86 percent of West Virginians felt the payments had made a “huge difference.”

Despite those facts, Manchin continues to be an obstacle to helping alleviate the suffering of his own constituents, and that threatens the health and futures of hundreds of thousands of kids in West Virginia, which doesn’t seem to bother the senator in the least.

All of this has left many wondering who exactly Joe Manchin is working for: Them, or the lobbyists who are busily pumping money into his campaign to help get him re-elected to yet another term in 2025?