[Note: This statement was updated in July 2022 to note reflect legislative changes regarding the No Right to Abortion constitutional amendment.]
Abortion is still legal and facilities that provide abortion care are still open in Pennsylvania.
Today, the U.S. Supreme Court served special interests instead of justice.
We are outraged by the rank anti-abortion activism of the Court. Today’s ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization obliterated nearly 50 years of precedent to sanction a regressive and dangerous scheme to oppress women and birthing people.
The future of reproductive rights and abortion access in Pennsylvania is being written and will depend, in large part, on how Pennsylvanians respond to these efforts.
Pennsylvania is neither a trigger-law state nor a “safe haven” state. While today’s decision does not immediately affect Pennsylvania law, it will empower Pennsylvania’s radical anti-abortion state lawmakers, who are already trying to completely ban abortion in Pennsylvania.
Medical experts warn banning abortion would harm public health by increasing maternal and infant mortality and morbidity. Criminal justice experts warn criminalizing abortion will lead to a wave of mass incarceration unseen since the failed war on drugs. Black women, people of color, low-income people, rural residents, people with disabilities and youth are most acutely harmed.
It is important to understand that while losing Roe is catastrophic to reproductive rights, Pennsylvanians still have relevant rights under the Pennsylvania state constitution, which prohibits sex-based discrimination.
In the fall we expect to present oral arguments before the state Supreme Court on behalf of Pennsylvania-based abortion providers challenging the state’s discriminatory ban on Medicaid coverage for abortion. In this litigation, filed in 2019, we also asked the Court to clearly affirm Pennsylvanians have a fundamental right to abortion under our state constitution.
Pennsylvania’s anti-abortion lawmakers view our state rights as an obstacle in their quest to ban abortion in Pennsylvania, and so they are strategizing to deprive us of them.
Anti-abortion constitutional amendment Senate Bill 106 [note: the No Right to Abortion constitutional amendment was initially introduced as SB956] would pave the way to banning abortion in Pennsylvania by amending our state constitution with language that could be interpreted to give fertilized eggs paramount rights over pregnant people. It advanced out of the state Senate committee in January and is awaiting a final vote in the state Senate before moving to the state House.
The No Right to Abortion constitutional amendment seeks to immediately deprive us of rights grounded in our state constitution and eliminate state courts as a venue to challenge legislative overreach in the future.
This historic moment is overwhelming. The backlash of white male supremacy is strong. They want to push us back in time and keep us there in the future.
We urge everyone outraged today to contact your Senator and Representative and urge them to oppose the No Right to Abortion amendment in Senate Bill 106.
We must stop the No Right to Abortion amendment. We must vote. We must be there for one another. We are here for you.
Women’s Law Project is a public interest law center in Pennsylvania devoted to advancing and defending the rights of women, girls, and LGBTQ+ people in Pennsylvania and beyond. As a non-profit organization, we can not do this work without you. Please consider supporting our work.
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