Did you see the op-ed written by Pennsylvania-based nurses expressing support for lifting Pennsylvania’s ban on Medicaid coverage of abortion care?
From the piece published in the Pennsylvania Capital-Star:
We are a group of nurses who believe in every individual’s right to access abortion care. This right should be independent of income. It should not be reserved for the privileged few who can afford to pay.
As nurses, we witness the complex decisions made by our patients every day. We have held the hands of parents struggling to both heal and survive on minimum wage.
We have supported young people who were survivors of incest. We have cried with parents who learned that their baby would be too sick to survive. As healthcare providers, we witness families grapple with complicated personal decisions, and we know that patients who choose to have an abortion do so with careful consideration.
According to the Guttmacher Institute, 85 percent of Pennsylvania counties have no clinics that provide abortion, and nearly half of all Pennsylvania women live in these counties.
The authors express support for our current effort to restore Pennsylvania’s ban on Medicaid coverage of abortion.
That case, Allegheny Reproductive Health Center v. Pennsylvania Department of Human Services, was filed in Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court in January 2019. Its central claims are that the abortion coverage ban violates the Equal Rights Amendment and equal protection provisions of the Pennsylvania Constitution.
You can read more about the case and review court documents here.
Thank you to the nurses who took the time to advocate for their patients. We see you! It is so important, especially in this climate, for medical professionals to speak out against political attacks on equitable access to reproductive healthcare, including abortion.
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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