{"id":199106,"date":"2026-05-21T18:45:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T18:45:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/199106\/"},"modified":"2026-05-21T18:45:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T18:45:11","slug":"pennsylvania-attorney-general-appeals-decision-overturning-states-ban-on-medicaid-funded-abortions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/199106\/","title":{"rendered":"Pennsylvania attorney general appeals decision overturning state\u2019s ban on Medicaid-funded abortions"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">(WHTM) \u2014 Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday has challenged <a href=\"https:\/\/www.yahoo.com\/news\/articles\/pennsylvania-court-rules-medicaid-coverage-175039076.html\" data-ylk=\"elm:link;elmt:article_link;slk:the Commonwealth Court\u2019s ruling;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;outcm:mb_qualified_link;_E:mb_qualified_link;ct:story;\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;the Commonwealth Court\u2019s ruling&quot;}\" class=\"link  yahoo-link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">the Commonwealth Court\u2019s ruling<\/a> last month that found the\u00a0state\u2019s ban on Medicaid coverage for abortions unconstitutional.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Longtime precedent held that abortions are legal but that tax dollars shouldn\u2019t be paid for them, including through Medicaid. Multiple organizations, including Planned Parenthood Keystone and several women\u2019s health facilities, sued the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services and its leadership, challenging that policy, and Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) didn\u2019t defend it.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a href=\"#sailthru-signup-widget\" data-ylk=\"elm:link;elmt:article_link;slk:Close;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Close&quot;}\" class=\"link \">Close<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Thanks for signing up!<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Watch for us in your inbox.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Subscribe Now<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The intermediate appellate court\u2019s 4-3 opinion found that coverage exclusion in the Pennsylvania Abortion Control Act \u201cis unconstitutional, as it violates the Pennsylvania Constitution\u2019s Equal Rights Amendment\u2026and the Pennsylvania Constitution\u2019s equal protection guarantees.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">But Sunday, a Republican, suggested the court erred in its ruling. He filed an appeal to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The attorney general did not take questions on the matter, but he released a short statement: \u201cPer the Commonwealth Attorneys Act, the Office of Attorney General has a statutory obligation to defend the Commonwealth\u2019s laws, and\u00a0our notice of appeal\u00a0fulfills that duty with regards to this statute.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.abc27.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"elm:link;elmt:article_link;slk:For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to ABC27.;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to ABC27.&quot;}\" class=\"link \"> For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to ABC27. <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(WHTM) \u2014 Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday has challenged the Commonwealth Court\u2019s ruling last month that found the\u00a0state\u2019s&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":199107,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[33,7939,28,11011,30,29],"class_list":["post-199106","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-josh-shapiro","tag-medicaid","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-constitution","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199106","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=199106"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199106\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/199107"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=199106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=199106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=199106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}