Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Wolf opposes abortion bill
Gov. Tom Wolf joined local elected officials and abortion rights advocates at Borough Hall Monday morning to voice their opposition to proposed legislation that would fundamentally change when and under what circumstances a woman would be able to have an abortion in Pennsylvania.
Senate Bill 3, sponsored by State Sen. Michele Brooks, Dist., 50, would restrict the allowable time for the pregnancy ending procedure from 24 weeks to 20 weeks with no exceptions for incest or rape.
Proponents of the bill cite medical advancements that can truncate the period of fetal viability, while those opposed, including Wolf,
State Rep. Mary Jo Daley, Montgomery County Commissioner Val Arkoosh and others argue that the bill, now working its way through the Legislature, discounts the concerns of women and families who are informed, late term, of devastating birth defects and other life-threatening maladies.
Abortion rights advocates also argue that the bill’s restrictions on abortion are unconstitutional, prohibit a woman’s decision as to as she decide with her body, and represent one if the most restrictive state policies on abortion in the nation.
No anti abortion activists were present or voiced their opinions at the publicly advertised press conference.
“So I want to be clear,” Wolf said. “This legislation is a disingenuous and baldfaced attempt to pass the most extreme ant-choice legislation in this country.”
“This legislation is an attempt to criminalize the decisions that women make about their own healthcare. And this legislation destroys healthcare options of victims, even those who are victims of the horrors of rape and incest.
“When and if this legislation ultimately reaches my desk, I will veto it.” Wolf continued. “For too long, Republicans in Washington and Harrisburg have played games with healthcare and repeatedly attacked women’s rights to make their own decisions. This must stop. It’s not a politician’s place to legislate what rights a woman has over her own body. It’s not a politician’s place to limit individual liberties. And it is never a politician’s place to play doctor and attempt to legislate medical advice.”
Daley characterized the position of some Republican lawmakers’ opposition to funding (CHIP) the Children’s Healthcare Insurance Program, and other criminal justice stances and social service programs as being “pro-birth” rather than “pro life,” and wondered how the party that is supposedly represents “small government” finds itself intruding on of the most personal matters of its citizenry.
“SB3 legalizes forced pregnancy under the worst possible circumstances,” added Montgomery Commissioner Val Arkoosh, a medical doctor who specialized in obstetrics and gynecology as drew on her personal experience as a physician.
“In Pennsylvania, less than 2 percent of abortions are after 20 weeks,” said Arkoosh. “But a woman making those decisions needs access to all of the safe and legal options without government interference.”
The conference drew to a close with remarks from Dr. Erica Goldblatt Hyatt, a Pennsylvania mom who learned, late in pregnancy, that her unborn son would not survive in the womb, or would be brain dead-shortly after birth.
“I remember every pair of sympathetic eyes — from social worker to pediatric surgeon — meeting my own hopeful gaze as they shared the news that Darby (the name she and her husband had chosen for their son) was dying, and it was only a matter of time.
“Every time I felt a kick , I was reminded that his was a future without hope as he continued to live and die simultaneously inside me. After much deliberation, my husband and I chose a path that we thought would bring Darby the most peace: to end the pregnancy, despite knowing that we would be forced to live with the deep pain and stigma of it for the rest of our lives.“
“It is unbelievable to me that the personal choice to end my pregnancy, under a bill like SB3 could become criminalized with virtually no exception, robbing women like me of our parental rights to act in the best interest of our unborn children.”