Abortion access<\/p>\n
When the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade<\/a> by holding that the U.S. Constitution does not confer a right to abortion, they effectively left the legality of reproductive health up to the states.<\/p>\n Not much immediately changed for residents of Pennsylvania where current state law aligns with a standard similar to the tenets set by Roe. The state\u2019s Abortion Control Act currently permits abortion before 24 weeks, though it is subject to waiting periods, consent requirements and other restrictions.<\/p>\n Additionally, the state\u2019s Commonwealth Court has ruled<\/a> that the state constitution protects reproductive autonomy, and the state Supreme Court previously ruled<\/a> that the constitution\u2019s Equal Rights Amendment protects abortion rights, based on principles of equal protection and privacy.<\/p>\n Anti-abortion activists have since sought to reverse<\/a> direction on abortion and the two candidates are on opposing sides of the issue.<\/p>\n Shapiro supports preserving legal abortion in Pennsylvania and has promised to veto additional restrictions. He has also said he wants lawmakers to codify abortion rights<\/a> into state law, making an affirmative right absolute.<\/p>\n Shapiro also declined to defend the Pennsylvania Abortion Control Act, which prohibited the use of Medicaid funds for most abortions when it was attacked in courts. He lauded the Commonwealth Court decision<\/a> that struck it down<\/a>, saying \u201ca woman\u2019s ability to access reproductive care should never be determined by her income.\u201d<\/p>\n Garrity<\/a> has long described herself as \u201c100% pro-life<\/a>\u201d and praised<\/a> the U.S. Supreme Court\u2019s reversal of Roe v. Wade. As a candidate for governor, she has said she would respect current law and would not pursue a ban<\/a>. Garrity criticized the Commonwealth Court ruling<\/a> as \u201cimmoral\u201d and called it \u201cdeeply concerning\u201d that the governor did not defend it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Abortion access When the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade by holding that the U.S. Constitution does…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":302235,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[10483,25694,442,96319,7939,28,30,29,8060],"class_list":["post-302234","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-abortion","tag-elections-2026","tag-gov-josh-shapiro","tag-gubernatorial-race","tag-medicaid","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news","tag-stacy-garrity"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302234","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=302234"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302234\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/302235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=302234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=302234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=302234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}