Thanks to lawmakers who don’t trust women or respect the sanctity of family, privacy, or constitutional rights—or recommendations of medical and public health experts—Pennsylvania doctors and patients must navigate a maze of unnecessary, burdensome regulations designed to shame people who seek abortion care and intimidate doctors who provide it.
Now Pennsylvania lawmakers are back at it again. This time, they’re threatening doctors with felony conviction if they provide abortion care to targeted women and pregnancy conditions.
House Bill 321 seeks to criminalize abortion by surveilling and policing the reasons people seek abortion care. Specifically, HB 321 would criminalize abortion for Pennsylvanians who are given a prenatal diagnosis of Down syndrome. HB 321 also seeks to criminalize abortion if the sex of the fetus is perceived to factor into a person’s decision to have an abortion, a provision rooted in racist stereotypes about Asian-American and immigrant women.
We are not fooled by the misleading claims made by the supporters of this bill.
- HB 321 provides no services or resources to people with disabilities or families of people with disabilities. In fact, Rep. Klunk, a primary sponsor of HB 321, recently voted to sever the safety net for Pennsylvanians with disabilities by voting to cancel the General Assistance program. Klunk even voted against an amendment that would have allowed people with mental and physical disabilities to continue to receive assistance.
- Medical experts are opposed to HB 321. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists issued a statement asserting these “reason bans” represent “gross interference in patient-physician relationship[s], creating a system in which patients and physicians are forced to withhold or outright lie in order to ensure access to care.”
- HB 321 is unconstitutional. As we outline in this memo we sent to every member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, every single time a federal court has considered the constitutionality of a pre-viability abortion ban, it has been held unconstitutional under decades-long U.S. Supreme Court precedent.
The bottom line: Pregnant Pennsylvanians and doctors don’t need more political interference into reproductive healthcare. Pregnant people deserve to be informed of all available health care options so they can decide what is best for them.
The real goal of threatening doctors with felony charges for providing abortion care to women with specific fetal diagnoses is to dissuade doctors from recommending screening and diagnostic testing and incentivize patients to withhold their medical history and concerns from their doctors.
Support evidence-based reproductive healthcare and say no to more political interference.
Urge your state Representative to vote NO on HB 321.
The Women’s Law Project is a public interest law center devoted to defending and expanding the rights of women, girls, and LGBTQ people in Pennsylvania and beyond.
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