CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — The closest West Virginia voters could come to having their say at the ballot box on whether abortion should be legal in the post-Roe v.
Wade era might be in this year’s governor’s race. State Attorney General Patrick Morrisey and Huntington Mayor Steve Williams have been leaders and occasional allies in the fight against drug abuse in West Virginia, both working to stem the flow of pharmaceuticals into the state with the highest opioid death rate in the nation. But when it comes to reproductive rights, the two could hardly be further apart.
Morrisey, the Republican nominee, has been a vigorous defender of West Virginia's comprehensive ban on abortion, which includes few exceptions. Williams, his Democratic opponent, tried but failed to get an abortion referendum on the November ballot. Now he is betting that the divide over the issue is larger than Republicans think, even in a GOP-dominated state that voted in support of Trump in every single county in 2016 and 2020.
“As I see it, freedom will be on the ballot one way or another,” said Williams, who has been meeting with independent, Republican and Democratic women unhappy with lawmakers’ restrictions. Unlike some other states that have taken a vote on abortion following the end of federal protections, West Virginia has no citizen-led ballot initiative process. The only way to get a ballot question is with a vote of the legislature, which has Republican supermajorities in both chambers an.