Measure restricting abortions heads to Gov. Wolf

HARRISBURG — A controversial bill restricting abortion rights in Pennsylvania is heading to Gov. Tom Wolf, opening the door for a showdown between the Democrat and the Republican-controlled Legislature.

Mr. Wolf has promised to veto what he calls “the most extreme anti-choice legislation in the country” and “an assault on the doctor-patient relationship by politicians without medical or health expertise.”

The bill bans abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy, except in some medical emergencies. That’s four weeks earlier than under current state law. It passed the House on Tuesday night, 121-70. The same bill passed the Senate in February, 32-18.

It also would curtail a secondtrimester surgical procedure the bill’s supporters refer to as “dismemberment abortion,” a term not widely recognized in the medical community.

Legislators could try to override a Wolf veto, but that would be difficult. Overriding requires a two-thirds vote of all members in each chamber. Both chambers were shy of that mark in passing the bill.

Still, the issue quickly became a talking point in the upcoming governor’s race.

Sen. Scott Wagner, R-York, voted for the bill in February, and House Speaker Mike Turzai, R-Allegheny, voted for it Tuesday. Both are running for the Republican nomination to challenge Mr. Wolf next year, and shortly after Tuesday’s vote, they sent out statements supporting the bill.

In addition to banning abortions after 20 weeks, the bill also would make it a felony for doctors to cause “the death of an unborn child by means of

dismembering the unborn child and extracting the unborn child one piece at a time.” The bill contains some exceptions “to prevent either the death of the pregnant woman or the substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function of the woman.”

Critics complained that it doesn’t contain exceptions for women who are victims of rape or incest or for fetal abnormalities, though supporters have said that doesn’t differ from current law.

The bill did not receive a single public hearing with testimony from the medical community.

Representatives debated for more than three hours before passing the bill Tuesday night. Much of the discussion concerned ideological arguments about when a fetus becomes viable and whether the government should play a role in determining when women can get abortions.

Rep. Dan Frankel, DSquirrel Hill, said he feared the bill would force women to carry pregnancies to term even when they knew their child would be born with a condition that results in a “short and brutally painful life.”

Opponents, including the Pennsylvania Medical Society, have noted that women often get a key ultrasound around the 20th week that allows doctors to detect abnormalities that can be life-threatening to the fetus.

“I suspect that physicians don’t want to be forced to choose between compliance with arbitrary, unnecessary barriers put in place by nonmedical professionals from doing what they know is best for the women in front of them,” Mr. Frankel said.

Supporters said medical science had advanced to allow a fetus to be viable earlier than 24 weeks, measured from a woman’s last menstrual period.

Rep. Judy Ward, a Republican nurse from Blair County, shared those concerns and said fetuses who feel pain “are viable human beings.”

“They all matter,” she said of the women, “but so do the lives of the unborn.”