The passing of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg presents an existential threat to reproductive rights in America and makes it even more critical that we flip the Pennsylvania House from red to blue.

 

Until now, anti-choice forces have advocated that laws regulating reproductive choice should be matters left to individual states. Anti-choice activists have been forced to be satisfied with chipping away at abortion rights through state legislatures with Republican majorities and governors.

 

If Mitch McConnell and Donald Trump are successful in filling Justice Ginsburg’s seat with a right-wing, anti-choice nominee, all bets are off.

 

Abortion rights are constantly under attack in Harrisburg

 

Anti-abortion bills, all of which I have opposed, are regularly introduced and passed by extremists in the Pennsylvania legislature and are fortunately vetoed by Governor Wolf:

 

  • House Bill 321 was introduced, passed and vetoed. It was intended to criminalize an abortion which was chosen because of a diagnosis of Down Syndrome.
  • House Bill 1890 was introduced, passed and vetoed. It would have mandated the burial or cremation of a fetus resulting from any abortion or miscarriage occurring in a health care facility. The information would have been maintained by the Department of Health and eventually made public, a thinly veiled attempt to intimidate and shame women.
  • House Bill 1977, the “heart-beat bill”, was introduced in 2019. This legislation would have prohibited any abortions after a heart beat is detected, for all intents and purposes, nullifying Roe v. Wade.
  • In the early stages of the pandemic response Republicans floated legislation that would have classified abortions as elective procedures thus temporarily banning them.

 

History repeating itself

 

I was 12 when Roe V. Wade was decided. I don’t remember the historic milestone when it happened, but by the time I reached adolescence I was certainly aware.  In 2018, when I was running for State Representative, I would occasionally share a story about my early understanding of reproductive rights. While a student at the University of Pennsylvania, I took a course called “Women and the Law”.

 

One of the professors teaching that class was Kathryn Kolbert, who would later successfully argue Planned Parenthood v. Casey before the United States Supreme Court. She argued that case 20 years after Roe. When that case was decided in favor of Planned Parenthood most of us believed that surely the matter was settled.

 

Yet here we are, 28 years after Planned Parenthood v. Casey, 47 years after Roe v. Wade, still fighting for our reproductive rights. With the passing of Justice Ginsburg, our firewall on the Supreme Court may soon be breached, overturning Roe v. Wade and leaving it up to individual states to permit, regulate or even ban abortion procedures.

 

Vigilance required

 

While our state constitution has an equal rights amendment that prohibits the state from disadvantaging anyone based on sex, there are no constitutional protections in our Commonwealth guaranteeing the right to choose. Certainly, the equal rights provision could be used to protect abortion rights depending on how our courts interpret it. However, if the Republicans maintain control of the legislature and manage to elect a Republican governor, and Roe v. Wade is overturned, we will likely see the end of abortion rights in Pennsylvania.

 

We cannot allow that to happen. It is critical that we gain control of the legislature and reverse the laws the Republicans have passed eroding abortion rights and move legislation that clearly protects our right to choose.

 

It’s time for a pro-choice constitutional amendment in Pennsylvania

 

I feel so strongly about the need to protect reproductive rights in Pennsylvania that I am going to propose next week and start the legislative gears turning for an amendment to our state constitution that specifically guarantees the rights of women in Pennsylvania to have access to abortion services if they so choose.

 

Thank you for reading and thank you Ruth Bader Ginsburg,

 

Kristine

 

P.S.  A donation to my campaign supports our efforts to flip the Pennsylvania House from red to blue. 

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