Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin vetoed a bill that would have prohibited abortions after 20 weeks.
Tomblin said, in a statement released by his office on March 28, his reason for vetoing the bill was because it was unconstitutional.
“I have vetoed HB 4588 because I am advised, by not only attorneys from the legislature, but through my own legal team that this bill is unconstitutional.”
Tomblin said while he believes there is no greater gift of love than the gift of life, he had to veto the bill.
During the regular session, Sen. Erik Wells asked for the bill to be read in it’s entirety, explaining it was unconstitutional and he was prepared to bring that to the attention of the Legislature.
Wells said it was amazing to him the Legislature would be so quick to protect West Virginians rights when it came to Freedom of Speech, the Right to Bear Arms, but legislators were quick to “trample the rights of women in West Virginia.”
Tomblin said his legal team were not the only ones advising him the bill would do more harm than good.
“The bill is also problematic because it unduly restricts the physician-patient relationship,” Tomblin said. “All patients, particularly expectant mothers, require the best, most unfettered medical judgment and advice from their physicians regarding treatment options.”
Tomblin said the medical community had also advised him the bill would have jeopardized the health of pregnant women.
“The medical community has made it clear to me that the criminal penalties this bill imposes will impede that advice, and those options, to the detriment of the health and safety of expectant mothers,” he added.
Known as the abortion bill, House Bill 4588, is the second one Tomblin has vetoed since the legislative session ended on March 8.
Tomblin also took issue with the budget bill, vetoing several aspects of it on March 19.

TOMBLIN CHOOSES A VOTE OVER THE LIFE OF A CHILD
30 MarFROM THE CHURCHILL CENTER
29 Mar
When Churchill visited Harrow on October 29 to hear the traditional songs again, he discovered that an additional verse had been added to one of them. It ran:
“Not less we praise in darker days
The leader of our nation,
And Churchill’s name shall win acclaim
From each new generation.
For you have power in danger’s hour
Our freedom to defend, Sir!
Though long the fight we know that right
Will triumph in the end, Sir!
Almost a year has passed since I came down here at your Head Master’s kind invitation in order to cheer myself and cheer the hearts of a few of my friends by singing some of our own songs. The ten months that have passed have seen very terrible catastrophic events in the world – ups and downs, misfortunes – but can anyone sitting here this afternoon, this October afternoon, not feel deeply thankful for what has happened in the time that has passed and for the very great improvement in the position of our country and of our home? Why, when I was here last time we were quite alone, desperately alone, and we had been so for five or six months. We were poorly armed. We are not so poorly armed today; but then we were very poorly armed. We had the unmeasured menace of the enemy and their air attack still beating upon us, and you yourselves had had experience of this attack; and I expect you are beginning to feel impatient that there has been this long lull with nothing particular turning up!
But we must learn to be equally good at what is short and sharp and what is long and tough. It is generally said that the British are often better at the last. They do not expect to move from crisis to crisis; they do not always expect that each day will bring up some noble chance of war; but when they very slowly make up their minds that the thing has to be done and the job put through and finished, then, even if it takes months – if it takes years – they do it.
Another lesson I think we may take, just throwing our minds back to our meeting here ten months ago and now, is that appearances are often very deceptive, and as Kipling well says, we must “…meet with Triumph and Disaster. And treat those two impostors just the same.”
You cannot tell from appearances how things will go. Sometimes imagination makes things out far worse than they are; yet without imagination not much can be done. Those people who are imaginative see many more dangers than perhaps exist; certainly many more than will happen; but then they must also pray to be given that extra courage to carry this far-reaching imagination. But for everyone, surely, what we have gone through in this period – I am addressing myself to the School – surely from this period of ten months this is the lesson: never give in, never give in, never, never, never-in nothing, great or small, large or petty – never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy. We stood all alone a year ago, and to many countries it seemed that our account was closed, we were finished. All this tradition of ours, our songs, our School history, this part of the history of this country, were gone and finished and liquidated.
Very different is the mood today. Britain, other nations thought, had drawn a sponge across her slate. But instead our country stood in the gap. There was no flinching and no thought of giving in; and by what seemed almost a miracle to those outside these Islands, though we ourselves never doubted it, we now find ourselves in a position where I say that we can be sure that we have only to persevere to conquer.
You sang here a verse of a School Song: you sang that extra verse written in my honour, which I was very greatly complimented by and which you have repeated today. But there is one word in it I want to alter – I wanted to do so last year, but I did not venture to. It is the line: “Not less we praise in darker days.”
I have obtained the Head Master’s permission to alter darker to sterner. “Not less we praise in sterner days.”
Do not let us speak of darker days: let us speak rather of sterner days. These are not dark days; these are great days – the greatest days our country has ever lived; and we must all thank God that we have been allowed, each of us according to our stations, to play a part in making these days memorable in the history of our race.
HOW TO APPLY FOR OBAMACARE EXEMPTION
29 MarThis is important. The Obamacare individual mandate is falling apart. If you want to apply for exemption fill out this form. Hardships have been broadened to include most anything, including not being able to afford the premium if you’re prior policy was cancelled. If you’re interested, here is the link to the HHS application. Pass it on.
Mark Caserta: Dictators like Vladimir Putin only respect strength
27 MarPresident Obama once asked Vladimir Putin for “space” to focus on winning his 2012 re-election bid so he would be better “positioned” to “deal” on controversial issues.
While chatting with outgoing Russian president Dmitry Medvedev during the Nuclear Security Summit in Seoul, Korea, Obama said he would have “more flexibility” on issues such as missile defense after he secured the presidency.
Rolling cameras and hot microphones picked up the following “private” exchange as Obama leaned forward toward Medvedev:
President Obama: “On all these issues, but particularly missile defense, this, this can be solved but it’s important for him to give me space.”
President Medvedev: “Yeah, I understand. I understand your message about space. Space for you…”
President Obama: “This is my last election. After my election I have more flexibility.”
President Medvedev: “I understand. I will transmit this information to Vladimir.”
This exchange between presidential “comrades” captured by the White House press pool and Russian reporters characterizes the foreign policy appeasement strategy employed by Barack Obama.
Unfortunately, I believe we’re witnessing this president mirror mistakes eerily similar to the appeasement strategies offered by Western democracies in the 1930s that eventually put Adolf Hitler in a position to start World War II.
In what some have termed “moral cowardice,” Britain and France attempted to mitigate Germany’s demands through negotiation and compromise. But Hitler perceived this as weakness and was emboldened to heighten his aggression.
After seizing power in Germany, Hitler pursued a foreign policy thirsty for undoing the effects of the Treaty of Versailles, which banned him from re-arming his military and regaining territories lost at Versailles.
Hitler was desperate for more land, especially land rich in fossil fuels. And he was prepared to gamble that other European powers would be reluctant to go to war to stop him. He knew Europe’s economy was still recovering from World War I and military prowess had become secondary to bolstering social welfare programs.
As Hitler’s forces penetrated deeper into Poland, Great Britain and France were eventually forced to declare war on Germany, hence World War II.
Is Vladimir Putin, a man who once called the collapse of the Soviet Empire “the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century,” once again testing the backbone of Western democracy?
While Putin isn’t Hitler, he’s certainly ambitious enough and his potential for devastation is greater than anything the world has ever known.
Our nation was reminded of the dangers of liberal appeasement in Ronald Reagan’s “A Time for Choosing” speech in 1964.
“…Every lesson in history tells us that the greater risk lies in appeasement, as this is the specter our well-meaning liberal friends refuse to face — that their policy of accommodation is appeasement and it gives no choice between peace and war, only between fight and surrender. If we continue to accommodate, continue to back and retreat, eventually we have to face the final demand — the ultimatum. And what then?”
Appeasement has a bad track record. And untenable tyrants only view it as a sign of weakness.
Dictators like Vladimir Putin only respect strength.
Mark Caserta is a conservative blogger, a Cabell County resident and a regular contributor to The Herald-Dispatch editorial page.
Mark Caserta: We must choose the right path for our future
25 MarThe Herald-Dispatch / 2014
Our nation is at a crossroads where the choices for our future could not be more distinctly different in nature.
One path, conservatism, represents traditional, time-honored values with God’s Word and our nation’s founding documents serving as the principle, unshakable foundation on which our lifestyle and our ideology must align. Conservatives believe God is in control.
The path of progressivism represents an “innovational” system of values for “thinkers” who leverage the Constitution or the Bible only when convenient. Morality rests on a sliding scale and shifts with time in order to better align with an individual’s ideology. Progressives believe man is in control.
At this point in history, progressives are emboldened by their success and indeed flourishing in their movement. Unfortunately, while liberals have been tenacious in their attack on America, too many conservatives and Christians have watched from the sidelines.
After all, Jesus is coming soon, so why bother?
But what if our Lord doesn’t come for another generation? Considering the liberal resolve to fundamentally change America, what could our nation look like in 25 years if progressives continue to be successful?
Abortion might have no limitation in our society. Getting rid of an unwanted child could be as simple as getting rid of a headache. Despite the fact the Supreme Court ruling in Roe v. Wade gave some consideration to the viability of the baby, progressives have gradually “shifted” the mindset removing that consideration in many instances.
Our nation could see legislation re-introduced allowing partial birth abortion (PBA) and live birth abortion (LBA).
In a PBA, the doctor delivers a substantial portion of the living child outside the mother’s body while leaving the head just inside the womb. The baby is then killed by removing the brain by suction. The LBA is not really an abortion at all, but intentionally denying the baby care after a “botched” abortion.
The family unit may not look anything like it looks today. Progressives incessantly pursue universal same-sex marriage recognition for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender partners.
But understand liberal ideology demands removing all limitations, so where will it end?
Liberal “theologians” suggest amending the Bible to accommodate what it clearly calls “sexual immorality” and “unnatural desires.” But once God’s Word is negated as the benchmark, what will be acceptable? The available data on the unlikely marital “unions” already taking place is mind-numbing!
Organizations such as the North American Man/Boy Love Association (NAMBLA) will begin to flourish in the wake of liberal advancements. NAMBLA, according to its website is, “the love of a man for a boy, and of a boy for a man.” Is this acceptable to liberals? What networking of immorality will follow?
Understand, we not only choose our own paths, but we help to keep them open or closed for future generations. Today, both paths remain open. But what choices will our children have?
Liberalism exists to “open” a wide, inclusive path to destruction and to “close” the path paved with God’s Word and our Constitution.
Choose the right path now while we still can.
Mark Caserta is a Cabell County resident and a regular contributor to The Herald-Dispatch editorial page.







