WASHINGTON — Pennsylvania Senate Republicans passed a proposed constitutional amendment that would add language to the commonwealth’s constitution stating that it does not guarantee any rights to abortions or public funding of abortions. While Senate Republicans should have been focusing on their overdue state budget, they instead rammed through a measure that would lay the groundwork for them to enforce strict abortion bans in the future.The proposed amendment now goes to the Pennsylvania House where it is expected to pass.
“Pennsylvania Republicans are falling in line with extremists across the country and working to strip away reproductive freedom for millions of Pennsylvanians,” said DLCC President Jessica Post. “In the face of these dangerous anti-abortion measures moving across the country, it is clearer than ever that state legislatures are the last line of defense for these fundamental rights. Republicans will stop at nothing to attack abortion rights and make life worse for working Americans, and Democrats are laser focused on winning in the states to put an end to their extremism.”
Abortion is expected to become illegal in up to 26 states either because of pre-existing abortion bans on the books or because of Republican-controlled legislatures that are hostile to abortion rights. While the landscape is rapidly shifting, at the time of this writing abortion was effectively banned in Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Dakota and Texas. Democrats in 16 states and Washington, D.C. have explicitly protected the right to an abortion. The DLCC has launched the “States to Save Roe” campaign to help Democrats and the DLCC fight back against Republican attacks on abortion rights by electing state Democrats and protecting Democratic chambers that serve as a firewall for access to reproductive health care and services.
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