A state bill that would ban late-term abortions has the support of local lawmakers and an area pregnancy care center official.
Republicans legislators in the state House Health Committee earlier this week voted to bring Senate Bill 3 to the floor of the House. Lawmakers are expected to take up the measure next week. In February, the state Senate voted for the proposal.
“SB-3 would ban the gruesome practice of dismemberment abortion in Pennsylvania,” said state Rep. Matt Baker, R-Wellsboro, who is the majority chairman of the House Health Committee. “Dismemberment abortions occur when babies are torn limb by limb from their mothers’ wombs.”
The measure would change the abortion limit in the commonwealth from six months to five months gestation to account for modern medical technology, Baker said.
Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati, R-Brockway, supports the measure. Kate Flessner, spokeswoman for Scarnati, said the senator is hoping the House will vote on “this important measure soon.”
Although the Bright Alternatives Pregnancy Care Center doesn’t participate in political matters, the bill is indeed a step in the right direction, opined Kim Crouse, executive director of the Bradford-based non-profit organization that serves many counties in Pennsylvania and New York.
“Oftentimes the choices we make in a moment of crisis are not the same choices we would make after assessing the situation and allowing ourselves to come out of ‘crisis mode,’” she told The Era on Tuesday. “Women should never feel that abortion is their only option. Abortion on demand is not the answer. Continued support through pregnancy and after is vital.”
Baker cited a statewide poll showed that 61 percent of Pennsylvanians support a dismemberment ban –– and among women, support is higher, at 64 percent.
While some conservative agencies are in favor of the measure, many others are speaking out against the proposal.
In a Tweet, Gov. Tom Wolf voiced his opposition to the bill. He said he plans to veto the measure.
“I will not allow #SB3 to make PA a place where women are not able to make health care decisions in accordance with their doctor’s advice. Thank you to the brave women who have shared their heartbreaking stories so that we might know the importance of preserving this right,” Wolf said on Twitter.
Also, Planned Parenthood Pennsylvania advocates want people to contact their state representatives, urging them to oppose the measure.
“This bill is dangerous for the women of Pennsylvania,” Planned Parenthood stated on its website. “If enacted, SB3 would be the most restrictive abortion ban in the country, banning one of the safest abortion procedures and leaving no exceptions for rape, incest, or tragic fetal anomaly. Politicians who truly care about women’s health and well-being should focus on policies and laws that advance healthy pregnancies and address the very serious and real needs of women who require abortions in the second trimester of a pregnancy.”
Meghan Eirkson, director of policy for Planned Parenthood Pennsylvania advocates, said the reason lawmakers who back the proposal wish to not vote in the “light of day” is that the bill fails to protect women. Instead, she said that women are put at risk.
“The machinations these lawmakers employed to fast-track this bill and silence patients and medical professionals show just how far they will go to pursue an extreme political agenda to undermine women’s reproductive rights,” she said in a prepared statement.
State Reps. Martin Causer, R-Turtlepoint, and Matt Gaber, R-DuBois, did not immediately return emails seeking comment for this story.
