A Pennsylvania court ruling is reshaping abortion access in the state, striking down a decades-old ban on using Medicaid to pay for abortions and declaring that the Pennsylvania Constitution guarantees a right to abortion.<\/p>\n
The decision came Monday from the state\u2019s Commonwealth Court. In a 4-3 vote, judges ruled in favor of abortion rights in Pennsylvania and invalidated the state\u2019s restriction on Medicaid-funded abortions.<\/p>\n
Local abortion-rights advocates praised the ruling as a major step toward protecting access for low-income residents. Adrienne Daily, co-founder of Johnstown for Choice, said, \u201cEverybody should have the right to that. If you restrict the coverage, you’re obviously discriminating against those that have lower income.\u201d<\/p>\n
Opponents of abortion rights called the decision a dramatic expansion of the court\u2019s power and warned it will force taxpayers to pay for procedures they oppose. Michael Geer, president of the Pennsylvania Family Institute, said, \u201cTaxpayers now in Pennsylvania will have no choice under this court ruling to fund abortions. And there are many, many millions of Pennsylvanians who think abortion is wrong. It’s the taking of an innocent human life and to force taxpayers who conscientiously object to abortion to then fund it is just plain wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n
Abortion-rights advocates pushed back, arguing abortion access is healthcare and a personal decision. Daily said, \u201cThis is a family issue. This is a personal issue. This is a bodily autonomy issue.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pro-life leaders also warned the ruling could have broader implications for other abortion-related laws. Geer said, \u201cIt is sweeping and there’s no question it’s judicial overreach.\u201d He added, \u201cIf this ruling stands, it will invite attacks on every remaining pro-life safeguard that has been put into law by lawmakers at the behest to the people of Pennsylvania over decades.\u201d<\/p>\n
The case could still be appealed to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. That decision lies with Republican Attorney General Dave Sunday. His office has not provided a response, but the Associated Press reported a spokesperson said the office is reviewing the decision and did not say whether it will appeal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Pennsylvania court ruling is reshaping abortion access in the state, striking down a decades-old ban on using…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":171443,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29],"class_list":{"0":"post-171442","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pennsylvania","8":"tag-pennsylvania","9":"tag-pennsylvania-headlines","10":"tag-pennsylvania-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171442","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=171442"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171442\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/171443"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=171442"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=171442"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=171442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}