The short version: The General Assembly has been in a state of chaos and it has been difficult to follow what’s going on, so we have provided a detailed overview of the constitutional amendments threatening abortion access in Pennsylvania. The short version is that we must oppose a constitutional amendment package called SB1. If you are short on time, please skip to the last section and take action!
Sunday, January 23 marks 50 years since the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed the right to abortion is a federal constitutional right in Roe v. Wade—and one day short of seven months since the U.S. Supreme Court notoriously overruled Roe in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.
Internationally, the elimination of our federal right to abortion—long considered a basic human right—signals that the United States is a backsliding democracy, an outlier looking more aligned with politically regressive countries.
On the ground here in the U.S., the Dobbs decision has directly led to widespread maternal injury and trauma across the country, especially harming people who live in states that subsequently severely restricted or outright banned abortion care and communities already facing systemic and compounding barriers to abortion, contraception, and reproductive healthcare.
It’s already clear post-Dobbs abortion restrictions and bans are deepening existing inequities.
Pennsylvania: Current Landscape & What’s Next
Abortion is still legal in Pennsylvania.
Though the law hasn’t changed yet, it’s important to understand that Pennsylvania law could radically and quickly change soon.
Pennsylvania’s anti-abortion lawmakers have signaled they will spend this new session continuing to ignore the needs of constituents and instead obsessively strategize how to restrict and ban abortion in Pennsylvania.
Right now, the biggest threats to abortion access are constitutional amendments.
While constitutional amendments were historically advanced to affirm a right, these cynical efforts seek to eliminate our rights under the Pennsylvania state constitution. This strategy is right out of the national anti-abortion movement’s playbook: now that our federal right to abortion has been eliminated at the U.S. Supreme Court, the anti-abortion movement is focused on eliminating our rights at the state level.
Practically speaking, Pennsylvania’s anti-abortion lawmakers have resorted to gouging our rights out of the state constitution via constitutional amendments because they can’t get their unpopular and dangerous legislation passed into law in a democratic system without leapfrogging the executive branch and nullifying the judicial branch: constitutional amendments can’t be vetoed by the governor, and they eliminate state constitutional litigation as a tool to challenge over-reaching laws.
Meanwhile, in October, WLP attorneys asked the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to affirm that our state constitutional rights include the right to reproductive autonomy in a case that also challenges the state’s discriminatory ban on Medicaid coverage of abortion. That case is called Allegheny Reproductive Health Center v. Pennsylvania DHS. We are currently awaiting a ruling.
Update on the Anti-Abortion Constitutional Amendment
We have told you about the anti-abortion constitutional amendment: its sole purpose is to pave the way to ban abortion in Pennsylvania.
It passed last session during a notorious midnight raid on our rights and would have to pass once more this session to appear as a ballot question on an election day. The anti-abortion constitutional amendment has not moved yet this new session and, given the new composition of the Pennsylvania House, may not advance this session. However, we must all stay vigilant and sustain strong opposition until this amendment expires at the end of 2024.
New Threat: “Back-Door” Restrictions via “Regulatory” Constitutional Amendment
Given the decreased likelihood of the anti-abortion amendment passing the state House this session, anti-abortion lawmakers have shifted focus to a back-door way to restrict access to abortion and related reproductive healthcare by advancing a broader “regulatory” amendment that is sponsored by Senator Ryan Aument (R-Lancaster).
This amendment, which also already passed once last session, would deprive state agencies of their current regulatory authority by handing more power over proposed regulations to state lawmakers. For example, the amendment could effectively strip the health department of the power to regulate telemedicine by giving the state legislature more power to disapprove regulations.
Anti-abortion lawmakers tacked the regulatory amendment onto a voter ID/voter suppression constitutional amendment sponsored by Senator Daniel Laughlin (R-Erie) before adding a third, long-anticipated good constitutional amendment that would provide civil legal relief for survivors of childhood sexual abuse, sponsored by Senator Lisa Baker (R-Luzerne, Pike, Susquehanna, Wayne, Wyoming).
Collectively, that package is now called Senate Bill 1, or SB1.
In other words, anti-abortion lawmakers devised a scheme to stack unrelated amendments in a way that makes it impossible for lawmakers to vote to support rape victims without also voting to give anti-abortion lawmakers inappropriate regulatory powers and the ability to suppress voters.
SB 1 already passed the state Senate.
Take Action to Oppose #SB1
Do you know if your state Senator voted for SB1? Check here.
If they voted no, contact them to thank them for protecting the people of Pennsylvania. If they voted yes, contact them and tell them you oppose the regulatory amendment and the voter ID/voter suppression amendment.
Next, SB1 will head to the Pennsylvania House.
Contact your Representative and urge them to vote NO on SB1!
Women’s Law Project is a non-profit public interest law center in Pennsylvania devoted to advancing and defending the rights of women, girls, and LGBTQ+ people in Pennsylvania and beyond.
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