HARRISBURG (LifeSiteNews) – Pennsylvania’s Democrat Gov. Tom Wolf has signed an executive order protecting abortion-on-demand in the Keystone State, but pro-life senators have approved a measure that could clarify there is no state-level right to abortion in a higher authority: the Pennsylvania Constitution.
On Tuesday, Wolf announced that he had signed an executive order “immediately ensuring out-of-state residents may enter Pennsylvania to access” abortion and affirming that the governor will “decline any request received from any other state to issue a warrant for the arrest or surrender of any person charged with a criminal violation involving the provision, receipt of, or assistance with” abortion unless the charge is for something that is also illegal within Pennsylvania.
The previous Friday, however, the Pennsylvania Senate voted 28-22 to pass an omnibus resolution containing five proposals for amendments to the state Constitution, including “this Constitution does not grant the right to taxpayer-funded abortion or any other right relating to abortion.”
The amendment, which cleared a preliminary vote last month, now must be passed by the Republican-controlled Pennsylvania House, then be passed by both chambers a second time during the 2023-24 legislative session, after which it would be put to the state’s voters for final approval.
If enacted, the amendment would not directly ban abortion in the state, but would potentially weaken government actions predicated on such a constitutional “right,” as well as prevent courts from using the state Constitution to strike down duly-enacted pro-life laws.
Pennsylvania pro-lifers warn that one such effort is currently pending, in the form of a lawsuit that could result in the Pennsylvania Supreme Court asserting a state-level constitutional “right” to abortion.
READ: US bishop: Vulgar language of pro-abortion politicians shows us their message is ‘from the gutter’
The overturn of Roe v. Wade sparked the activation of numerous pre-Roe abortion bans that had gone unenforced for decades, as well as more recent pro-life laws that had been blocked by courts, and trigger laws designed not to take effect until Roe was reversed. Across the country, abortion giant Planned Parenthood has suspended abortions and/or closed locations in reaction to the ruling, and pro-life attorneys general have declared their intentions to enforce their states’ duly-enacted abortion prohibitions.
But leftists prosecutors in dozens of localities have vowed not to enforce such laws, ensuring that work and debate will continue over the prospect of banning abortion nationally. Pennsylvania also highlights the abortion lobby’s plan to shift much of the legal battleground from the U.S. Constitution to state constitutions in the absence of Roe.