WLP staff at the courthouse before arguments on February 5, 2025.
As of February 2025, this is the latest update on Allegheny Reproductive Health Center v Pennsylvania Department of Human Services, our landmark reproductive autonomy litigation in Pennsylvania:
On February 5, the WLP litigation team led by Executive Director Susan J. Frietsche, Senior Staff Attorney Christine Castro, and Drexel law professor David S. Cohen presented oral arguments before Commonwealth Court in a case that seeks to eliminate Pennsylvania’s Medicaid coverage exclusion of abortion.
Plaintiffs are Pennsylvania’s freestanding abortion providers.
The central claims of Allegheny Reproductive Health Center v. Pennsylvania Department of Human Services are that the state’s statutory Medicaid coverage exclusion violates the Pennsylvania Equal Rights Amendment and the Non-Discrimination Clause of Art I, Section 26 in the Pennsylvania Constitution.
This closely watched case is the first Pennsylvania state court proceeding challenging an abortion restriction since the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania restored the Pennsylvania Equal Rights Amendment and declared the state’s statutory Medicaid exclusion of abortion “presumptively unconstitutional” under the new precedent in January 2024.
The Medicaid ban is a discriminatory restriction that harms Pennsylvania families in violation of our state constitutional rights. Right now, 19 states allow state funds to cover abortion care in their Medicaid programs. We hope Pennsylvania is next.
As WESA-FM reported in this excellent story about the case, in the wake of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania’s landmark ruling that restored our state Equal Rights Amendment last year, we argued for the Commonwealth Court to declare that Pennsylvania’s statutory exclusion of abortion coverage in the Medicaid program is unconstitutional. This ruling has been recognized as “the strongest rebuke to Dobbs yet.”
Though the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania declared the ban “presumptively unconstitutional” in January 2024, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is still enforcing the ban.
Now, we wait for a ruling, which can come at any time.
We filed this litigation in January 2019. Case history is here.
Learn more about the revitalization of the Pennsylvania Equal Rights Amendment and the state supreme court Allegheny Repro ruling in our explainer here.
Contact Tara Murtha with questions at tmurtha@womenslawproject.org.
