“The Dobbs decision will go down as a shameful moment for our country and for the Court. Today, five Supreme Court Justices upended fifty years of settled law and subjected the health and private lives of millions of American women to the whims of politicians.
As a result of today’s decision, every American’s personal freedoms now depend on the state in which they live. Here in Pennsylvania, decisions about your bodies will now be left to elected officials in Harrisburg– giving those politicians more power than women in our Commonwealth.
Let me be clear: For now, abortion remains legal in Pennsylvania. Our laws have not changed with this ruling and abortion is permitted in Pennsylvania through the 23rd week of pregnancy, and afterwards when necessary to protect the life or health of the mother. I plan to continue to defend doctors’ ability to practice medicine and women’s right to privacy against any efforts to enforce a defunct rule mandating women notify their husbands of their personal decisions.
Unfortunately, I can’t give that same assurance to the women in places like Ohio, West Virginia, Kentucky, and other states across our nation. Wheels are already in motion to ban abortion in more than half of our country. I can promise you that if patients travel from those states into Pennsylvania – I will fight to protect them and their doctors from extreme politicians attempting to illegally interfere.
While this decision has no immediate impact here in Pennsylvania, it opens the door for our legislature to ban or criminalize abortion by simply passing a law—because there are no longer federal protections. I will fight any attempt to erode women’s rights in our Commonwealth.
To the doctors and patients in Pennsylvania who are worried about how this decision will impact them, know that the full force of my office is dedicated to protecting legal access to abortion in our Commonwealth.
I will stand firm in protecting a woman’s right to choose — and anyone who tries to threaten or undermine the fundamental freedoms of Pennsylvania women will have to go through the Office of Attorney General first.”
# # #