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The bills would return Pennsylvania to the Kermit Gosnell era, with legal protections for abortionists and late-term abortions.
The Pennsylvania House Judiciary Committee votes on a package of six bills Wednesday that will make it possible for pregnant Pennsylvania women to kill their unborn babies up to birth. It will also turn Pennsylvania into an abortion tourism destination, allowing women from states with stronger pro-life rules to kill their babies in Pennsylvania with no legal entanglements.
Currently Pennsylvania bans abortion after 24 weeks (six months), though even then state law makes an exception “when the pregnancy poses a serious health risk or threatens the life” of the mother.
The main legislation is HB 1957, which aims to amend the Pennsylvania Constitution, making abortion a state constitutional right. HB 1957 would have to be approved by voters on a statewide ballot, and the committee hearing is the first step in that long process to amend the state constitution. First it must be approved in committee, then it moves to the House. The Pennsylvania House has a slight Democrat majority over Republicans, 102-101, so there is a good chance the constitutional amendment (and the entire six-bill package) will be approved by the committee and could pass the House.
The Republican-led Senate is less likely to approve the amendment, but if it did, the General Assembly would need to pass the proposed amendment again in the next legislative session, and it would then be placed on the ballot for statewide voter approval. Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, a strong and tacky proponent of abortion (often making cutesy posts about “protecting access”), would not be involved in the amendment process.
“They have no restriction on abortion in the language,” Pennsylvania Pro-Life Federation Legislative Director Maria Gallagher told The Federalist, speaking of measures. “These bills are incredibly bad for women and babies in Pennsylvania; they would do everything from establish taxpayer funding of abortion to establishing late term abortions, to taking away the 24-hour waiting period for abortion, to taking away the counseling requirements for abortion. And what that would mean, is that women would not be told the risks of abortion or alternatives to abortion before an abortion takes place. This is really turning back the clock on protections for pregnant women and their babies.” --->READ MORE HERE
The Pennsylvania House Judiciary Committee advanced seven radical abortion bills Wednesday that would protect, expand and fund the abortion industry.
Each bill passed in a 14-12, party line vote, with Democrat committee members voting for the proposed measures and Republican members voting against them.
“These laws would make Pennsylvania one of the most extreme abortion states in the country overnight,” Lexi Sneller, a Policy Analyst with the Pennsylvania Family Council, told the Daily Citizen.
Four of the bills would shield abortion providers from prosecution, both from pro-life states and women harmed by abortions.
HB 1643 and HB 1966 prohibit Pennsylvania courts from cooperating with out-of-state judgements and legal cases against in-state abortion providers.
HB 1640 prohibits abortion providers from disclosing records to state courts without patient permission. Sneller says this bill would protect abortion providers from in-state prosecutions if Pennsylvania’s government became more pro-life.
HB 1641 effectively requires insurance companies to provide medical liability insurance to healthcare companies that perform abortions on citizens from states where abortion is illegal.
Pennsylvania informed consent law requires a mother to receive counseling on alternatives to abortion before going through with the procedure. It also requires a mother to wait at least 24 hours between deciding on an abortion and receiving one.
HB 2005 would completely remove both requirements, allowing desperate mothers to receive abortions without any time to consider other options.
HB 670 would criminalize peaceful protest outside abortion clinics. Prohibited conduct would encompass violent and non-violent “physical obstruction and intimidation [of] or interference [with]” a person trying to enter an abortion clinic, including persuading someone not to receive an abortion.
The bill is modeled off the Biden administration’s FACE Act, which led to the imprisonment of dozens of peaceful, pro-life protesters in 2024.
The final bill, HB 1957, would amend the Pennsylvania state constitution give every “individual” the right to “exercise personal reproductive liberty,” including undergoing an abortion.
The amendment would impose strict scrutiny — the highest level of legal review — on current and future pro-life laws, effectively gutting Pennsylvania’s pro-life protections.
“It’s such a high bar that, colloquially, it’s referred to as ‘strict in theory, fatal in fact,’ meaning that very few laws survive challenge under this rigorous test,” Dr. Elizabeth Kirk, a law professor at The Catholic University of America, testified before the Judiciary Committee. --->READ MORE HERE
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