Pa. voters could face anti-abortion constitutional amendment like in Kansas
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) - After Kansas voters overwhelmingly rejected a constitutional amendment to allow that state to prohibit all abortions, other states are considering similar measures.
As political editor Jon Delano explains, Pennsylvania voters could face the same issue next year.
Abortion rights supporters in Pennsylvania are worried about a proposed amendment not yet on the ballot.
"One dangerous thing," says Sue Frietsche, senior attorney with the Women's Law Project in Pittsburgh.
Frietsche says a proposed amendment to the Pennsylvania Constitution would open the door for state lawmakers to outlaw all abortions at all times, including some contraceptives.
"The very people who are promoting this constitutional amendment think that many common forms of birth control and emergency contraception are abortifacients. They think those things are abortions," says Frietsche.
The amendment, which passed the Republican-controlled legislature recently and must pass again next year to get on the ballot, says: "This Constitution does not grant the right to a taxpayer-funded abortion or any other right relating to abortion."
Its supporters say this is a response to a lawsuit, not yet decided by the state Supreme Court, brought by abortion rights groups who want abortions for the poor to be funded under Medicaid.
"We believe the Pennsylvania Supreme Court might go even further and declare a constitutional right to an abortion under the Pennsylvania Constitution, so our only recourse is a constitutional amendment," says Maria Gallagher, the legislative director for the Pennsylvania Pro-Life Federation.
Gallagher says the focus is abortion, not birth control.
Delano: "When it comes to so-called abortifacients, this would have nothing to do with that, in your view?"
Gallagher: "This simply addresses the issue of abortion. It does not address the issue of contraception."
Abortion rights groups think the wording will allow state lawmakers to do otherwise.
"As we see in other states, the attacks won't stop with abortion care. It will continue into things like contraception care and to folks in the LGBTQI community," says Lindsey Mauldin, director of Pennsylvania Planned Parenthood PAC.
To get this amendment on the ballot, it has to pass the legislature next year.
That makes this November's election really key.
"This constitutional amendment will be voted on again in the next legislative session in January, so it's very important for folks to understand how important election to the General Assembly is," says Mauldin.
If more pro-choice candidates are elected this fall, says Mauldin, the constitutional amendment will die. Gallagher agrees on that point.
"This November election is crucial in order to determine the status of the Pennsylvania House and Senate. We have good solid pro-life majorities in both the Pennsylvania House and Senate, and we want those majorities to continue," says Gallagher.
If that happens, says Frietsche, not only will the amendment get on the ballot, but in the legislature, "They could pass every crazy anti-abortion thing that you have heard of. We would look more like Texas. I would not be surprised if we saw a complete criminalization. We would have doctors going to jail."
Michael Geer with the Pennsylvania Family Institute, which supports this constitutional amendment, thinks abortion is one of several issues that voters will consider this November when half the state Senate and all 203 state representatives are up for election.
"Voter registration has been shifting in a conservative Republican direction because people are looking at the landscape – what's happening in Washington with the radical policies of the Biden administration on things like abortion," says Geer.
It's not clear yet whether this issue will draw more voters to the polls than usual – but you can count on both sides talking about it in the months ahead.