AG: Abortion legal in PA, state will protect providers
The commonwealth of Pennsylvania will continue to protect abortion access and resist any efforts by other states to prosecute doctors and healthcare providers who offer those services to out-of-state residents, attorney general Josh Shapiro announced in a press conference Thursday at Allegheny Reproductive Health Center in Pittsburgh.
“I vow here today that I will use every tool I have to defend doctors’ ability to practice medicine and patients’ ability to access healthcare all throughout Pennsylvania,” Shapiro said in a video of the conference posted online at pacast.com.
Abortion is legal in Pennsylvania through the 23rd week, and can be accessed after that if life or health are at risk. Shapiro emphasized that this remains the case even after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled last month in Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization that there is no constitutional right to an abortion.
Shapiro, a Democrat, was sharply critical of that ruling in Thursday’s remarks.
“No doctor, no patient should be put through the kind of chaos that we have seen in the wake of the Dobbs decision because of politics,” he said, adding that the decision will go down as a “shameful moment for our country and for the court. It is the first time in decades that a right was ripped away from an American.”
“What the court did was invite the whims of politicians to determine the personal healthcare decisions that Americans should be making for themselves,” Shapiro said.
He noted that Gov. Tom Wolf, also a Democrat, signed an executive order declaring that out-of-state residents may enter Pennsylvania to access abortion and other reproductive health care services. The order also said the governor would decline any request from another state to issue a warrant for the arrest or surrender of anyone charged with a criminal violation related to abortion, unless the charges are based on criminal offenses under Pennsylvania law.
Currently, no state has passed a ban on traveling to another state for an abortion, but legislation to that effect has been floated, prompting
a number of states where abortion remains legal to preemptively adopt policies protecting out-of-state travelers. Pennsylvania, through Wolf’s executive order, is one of them, and Shapiro said his office will support that.
If another state tries to prosecute a Pennsylvania healthcare professional for providing an abortion that is legal under state law, he said, officials will not cooperate with the investigation and the governor will not comply with extradition requests.
Shapiro also noted that the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act — commonly referred to as the FACE Act — remains in effect and is enforceable by his office and the three U.S. attorneys’ offices in Pennsylvania. FACE prohibits “violent, threatening, damaging and obstructive conduct intended to injure, intimidate or interfere with the right to seek, obtain or provide reproductive health services,” according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
Shapiro said illegal conduct under the act includes physical attacks, blockades of clinic entrances and threats of bodily harm. He directed anyone who witnesses potential violations to contact a special hotline at 717-705-6938, or go to attorneygeneral.gov.
Also speaking at Thursday’s press conference was Sheila Ramgopal, CEO of Allegheny Reproductive Health Center, who discussed the impact of the Dobbs decision so far on the clinic.
Ramgopal, who uses they/them pronouns, said the center immediately saw a 10-times increase in phone calls after the decision was announced, and is currently seeing two to three times the number of patients. They said roughly 30 percent of the clinic’s clients came from out of state prior to Dobbs; that figure now stands around 60 to 70 percent, and the center is looking at a staff expansion to deal with the increased demand.
“That also impacts people in Pennsylvania, because then they have to have their services delayed, or they have to go to other places and travel further,” Ramgopal said.
They said the center used to be able to reply to patients the same day the call was made; now, it can take as long as a week. However, they said, once patients are called back, it only takes one to two weeks to be seen at the clinic.
Shapiro is currently running for governor of Pennsylvania as the Democratic nominee. Wolf is constitutionally limited to two terms, and is serving his final year in office.