The West Virginia House of Delegates began moving a bill Thursday to ban abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy. The bill is very similar to one that was passed last year, only to be vetoed by Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin.

The bill is one of 11 introduced so far this legislative session that seek to restrict women’s access to abortion.

A similar bill passed both houses of the Legislature last year with overwhelming bipartisan support but was vetoed by Tomblin, who said he had been advised that it was unconstitutional.

The House Health Committee held a public hearing on the bill before discussing it and ultimately passing it 20-5.

The public hearing had 25 speakers against the bill and 8 speaking in favor, although neither side seemed likely to change the other’s mind.

This year’s bill (HB2568) would ban abortions that occur more than 22 weeks after the woman’s last menstrual period. While that is a change in language from last year’s bill, it does not seem to be a change in practice, as the bill defines that time as “generally consistent with the time that is twenty weeks after fertilization.”

The bill contains some exceptions for medical emergencies or non-viable fetuses.

In medical emergencies the bill says, somewhat quizzically, that “an abortion …shall terminate the pregnancy in the manner which, in reasonable medical judgment, provides the best opportunity for the fetus to survive.”

An amendment from three Democratic delegates that would have added an exception for cases of rape or incest failed, largely along party lines.

“Obviously rape is awful …” said Delegate Brian Kurcaba, R-Monongalia. “What is beautiful is the child that could come from this.”

The proposal, dubbed the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, seeks to stop abortions after the age at which a fetus is “capable of feeling pain.” The bill defines that time as 20 weeks after fertilization, but there is disagreement on that point.

As similar bills have been debated in other states, the American Congress of Obstetrics and Gynecologists, which generally supports abortion rights, has repeatedly issued statements calling into question the science used by the bills’ supporters.

“A rigorous 2005 scientific review of evidence published in the Journal of the American Medical Association concluded that fetal perception of pain is unlikely before the third trimester,” the organization wrote in 2013. “Although ultrasound monitoring can show intrauterine fetal movement, no studies since 2005 demonstrate fetal recognition of pain.”

At Thursday’s hearing, doctors went back and forth on the issue.

Dr. Mitzi Payne, a pediatric neurologist at Marshall University who does research on children’s brains, went through the bill’s findings on when fetuses experience pain and said that they were all either inaccurate or irrelevant.

Dr. Michael Rollins, an obstetrician-gynecologist from Buckhannon, admitted that he did not do research on the topic but said that, in his reading and his clinical work, the bill’s findings seem accurate. Rollins, when answering questions, several times received notes from a lawyer from the National Right to Life Committee who helped to draft the bill.

In 2011, the last year for which data is available, there were eight abortions in West Virginia after 20 weeks, according to data collected by the state Bureau for Public Health. In 2010, there were 10.

Tomblin vetoed last year’s bill three months after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to consider a similar 20-week ban in Arizona, which had been struck down as unconstitutional by a federal appeals court.

The Arizona law, however, banned abortions more than 20 weeks after a woman’s last menstrual period, or about 18 weeks after fertilization, a slightly more stringent ban than the one West Virginia’s Legislature passed last year.

The appeals court that overturned the Arizona law said the Supreme Court has been “unalterably clear” on the topic: “A woman has a constitutional right to choose to terminate her pregnancy before the fetus is viable,” the three-judge panel ruled unanimously.

A 2007 survey of obstetricians by the National Institute of Health placed the age of viability at between 23 and 24 weeks after a woman’s last menstrual cycle.

The biggest difference between last year’s vetoed legislation and the bill discussed Thursday is the proscribed penalties.

Last year’s bill punished doctors with a misdemeanor and a fine of up to $4,000. This year’s bill would punish doctors not with a criminal conviction, but with discipline from the state Board of Medicine, including a possible loss of their medical license.

In the statement he issued with his veto last year, Tomblin indicated that the criminal penalty for doctors in the bill influenced his decision.

“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 has made it clear to me the legal penalties this bill imposes will impede that advice.”

A different version of the bill, also introduced this year, anticipates the legal challenge that likely would ensue upon passage. That bill (HB2153) creates a special fund in the Attorney General’s Office to pay for the legal costs to defend the law.

Chris Stadelman, Tomblin’s spokesman, said that if the governor is sent the same bill as last year, he will veto it again. If the bill differs, Stadelman said, Tomblin will evaluate it before making a decision.

Reach David Gutman at david.gutman@wvgazette.com, 304-348-5119 or follow @davidlgutman on Twitter.