Late last night, while most of us were sleeping, Pennsylvania’s anti-abortion lawmakers conspiratorially convened at the last minute to eliminate our reproductive rights against the will of the people.
Specifically, led by Sen. Kim Ward, they pulled language from the anti-abortion constitutional amendment (SB956) that we’ve been telling you about and stuffed it into an unrelated bill (SB106).
Just now, SB 106 passed out of the Pennsylvania Senate by a vote of 28-22.
Next, it heads to the Pennsylvania House.
They edited the language to obscure the scope of harm but make no mistake: This bill paves the way to fully banning and criminalizing abortion in the Commonwealth. The midnight raid on our reproductive rights is a declaration of war on the people of Pennsylvania. It is white supremacy in action.
Here’s another trick they’re trying to pull on us: The anti-abortion lawmakers pushing the anti-abortion constitutional amendment repeatedly claim they are using the process of a constitutional amendment to leave the issue to the voters – and yet the bill they stuffed the language into – SB 106 – is also a voter suppression bill.
As we watch story after story emerge from states that banned abortion – including women denied life-saving treatment for ectopic pregnancies, women denied life-saving medications when they’re not even pregnant, warnings about the elimination of reproductive technologies like IVF – Pennsylvania anti-abortion lawmakers are working to bring all that unnecessary pain and death here.
The Pennsylvania Constitution was written to protect our rights. These lawmakers, who swore to uphold the federal and state constitutions, are abusing our state constitution in order to eliminate our reproductive rights and harm us.
They think they can hide in the dark, but we must shine a light on Pennsylvania’s anti-abortion lawmakers’ secretive, anti-democratic efforts to oppress us by any means necessary.
We must stop them.
TAKE ACTION
Spread the word about what’s happening! The new bill to oppose is SB 106. As of this morning, it is being debated in the Pennsylvania Senate. Next, it will go back to the Pennsylvania House.
Contact your Representative in the House NOW and urge them to fight this oppressive scheme and oppose SB 106.
Urge Governor Wolf to take action! Governors in other states, like Minnesota, Massachusetts and New Mexico have issued executive orders to help protect reproductive rights and abortion access in their states. Urge Governor Wolf to take action at this crisis moment!
Contact the leaders of the midnight raid in the Senate Rules Committee on our rights to let them know how you feel about their midnight raid on our rights!
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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