It’s health week in the Pennsylvania Capitol, and boy do we need it here in Pennsylvania, especially when it comes to maternal and infant mortality. Unlike the majority of states, Pennsylvania has not passed the Pennsylvania Pregnant Workers Fairness Act–basic protections designed to reduce workplace injuries, protect the pregnancies of workers, and prevent miscarriages.
As a result of this lack of legislative support for pregnant workers, pregnancy discrimination claims are rising in Pennsylvania while decreasing across the country.
Unfortunately, instead of advancing policy to protect constituents, Pennsylvania lawmakers obsessed with controlling women’s reproductive decisions are planning to advance at least four anti-choice bills in the state Legislature.
Three out of four of these bills prey on Pennsylvanians with medically complicated pregnancies by increasing government surveillance of them along with their doctors, and the fourth one is an unconstitutional near-total abortion ban. Two of the bills contain back-door “re-definitions,” meaning the nuts and bolts of the legislative language quietly changes the legal meaning of specific terms related to reproduction as a means to incrementally shift the law against our rights.
Contact your state Reps & urge them to vote NO on these bills:
HB 321 is an unconstitutional bill that targets families w/ prenatal diagnoses of Down syndrome for state scrutiny & deprivation of constitutional rights. The bill’s supporters pretend it is designed to protect people with disabilities, but in reality it merely seeks to force doctors to police patients’ reasons for exercising their constitutional right to abortion if such a decision is considered in the wake of a prenatal diagnosis. It is simply more political interference into the exam room.
HB 1890, based on Mike Pence’s bill in Indiana, changes the definition of “fetal death” to any point in pregnancy, forces a death certificate requirement for all such tissue, and effectively creates a state-run database of Pennsylvanians who have had miscarriages and abortion. The bill’s supporters are pretending it merely creates a choice for patients who wish to arrange for disposition and does not change current protocol; however, this right already exists under current law and the bill in fact mandates a radical and medically unnecessary change in how hospitals handle medical tissue related to pregnancy at increased cost for no medical purpose. In short, the bill seeks to exploit the suffering of people who have miscarriages in order to try to surveil and shame Pennsylvanians who choose abortion.
Alarmed psychologists are speaking out about how traumatic this government mandate will be on their patients, while primary sponsor Rep. Francis Ryan insists it has “no impact on the patient at all.”
HB 1977 is a blatantly unconstitutional abortion restriction that seeks to criminalize abortion in Pennsylvania before most people even know they are pregnant. Primary sponsor Rep. Stephanie Borowicz conceded that most people don’t even know they are pregnant by then.
HB 1058 initially sought to impose a 24-hour gag order on doctors to be enforced immediately upon giving their patient catastrophic medical news about their pregnancy with the goal of coercing Pennsylvanians into carrying unviable pregnancies despite increased medical and in some cases psychological risk. In response to outrage, the gag order was removed from the bill. Supporters continue to redefine the bill because it was written to redefine the term “abortion” to a broad, non-medical definition.
PS: Please join us in Philadelphia this Friday, November 22!
Come celebrate our victories and support the work necessary to succeed despite many current challenges by joining us at our annual party in Philadelphia. Please note we have changed the date and location this year–we hope to see you on Nov. 22 at the Ballroom at the Ben! Details and registration here.
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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