Pennsylvania Democrats introduced a resolution that would enshrine “personal reproductive liberty” in the state constitution via ballot measure, marking one of several states where similar efforts have been launched by abortion activists.
Members of the Pennsylvania House Judiciary Committee held a public hearing last week to evaluate the resolution, a required step before lawmakers can vote on the legislation. The resolution would have to pass both the Pennsylvania House, which is narrowly controlled by Democrats, and the Pennsylvania State Senate, which is controlled by Republicans.
“Every individual has the fundamental right to exercise personal reproductive liberty and make and effectuate decisions regarding the individual's own reproduction, including the ability to choose or refuse to prevent, continue, or end the individual's pregnancy, the right to choose or refuse contraceptives, and the right to choose or refuse fertility care, all without discrimination on the basis of race, age, disability, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, or relationship status,” reads the ballot measure on which residents would vote. “The commonwealth may not deny, burden, infringe upon, or abridge this right unless justified by a compelling state interest achieved by the least restrictive means.”
The push to enshrine abortion into the Pennsylvania state constitution comes one month after a similar effort succeeded in nearby Ohio, where a substantial majority approved an amendment establishing a right to “make and carry out one’s own reproductive decisions, including but not limited to" decisions about abortion, contraception, and fertility treatments.
The vote in Ohio also deepened the ideological divide between pro-life establishment entities and abolitionist organizations, the latter of which prefer an immediatist rather than incrementalist approach to ending abortion. Abolish Abortion Pennsylvania Lead Director Sal Piccolo said in an interview with The Sentinel that communications from the pro-life movement in Ohio failed to draw clear lines with respect to the humanity of preborn babies.
“Amending the Pennsylvania constitution to approve of baby murder is an act of rebellion against the Triune God and will invite his wrath upon our already bloodguilty commonwealth,” Piccolo told The Sentinel. “The Ohio pro-life movement failed because they tried to soften the blow and watered down the truth. They will do the same in Pennsylvania. The abolitionist movement, however, will be educating Pennsylvanians about the reality that abortion is child sacrifice and the murder of innocent preborn babies. We will call Pennsylvania to repent of the institutionalized murder of over one million image-bearers of God. We will not shrink back.”
Current law in Pennsylvania legalizes the murder of preborn babies through the twenty-third week of pregnancy by means of self-managed pill abortions or surgical abortions. Pennsylvania Democratic Governor Josh Shapiro has endorsed an executive order seeking to remind residents that “medication abortion remains legal in the commonwealth” despite court challenges and launching a state government website to assist access to the lethal procedure.
Pennsylvania Democratic State Representatives Danielle Otten and Liz Hanbidge, who introduced the ballot measure resolution, asserted that lawmakers need to “explicitly enshrine” abortion into the state constitution. “While the people of Pennsylvania strongly support personal reproductive liberty, our call to action is engaging and building a pro-choice majority in both the House and Senate to move this initiative forward,” Otten said in a statement. “This is just the beginning of the work, and my colleagues and I are committed to seeing it through.”
