HARRISBURG — Democrats in the Pennsylvania House announced Monday their plans to introduce a bill that would overturn existing law they say acts to restrict access to abortion in the commonwealth.
The announcement was made on the 51st anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade which until it was overturned in 2022, protected abortion rights nationwide.
The planned legislation would effectively reverse Act 122 of 2011 which requires abortion facilities to meet the same regulations as ambulatory surgical centers.
The planned bill, which is not yet introduced, has 12 co-prime sponsors including 11 women.
“There is no reason to have the standards put forth in that bill,” Rep. MaryLouise Isaacson, D-Philadelphia. “We don’t require such restrictions when a man wants to get a vasectomy.”
Rep. Tarik Khan, D-Philadelphia, a nurse practitioner, said the bill was denounced by the American Medical Association and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists when it was passed through the Republican-controlled state Legislature and signed by former Republican Gov. Tom Corbett.
Aligning the standards for an abortion facility with an ambulatory surgical center created expensive building issues concerning specific HVAC units and specialized elevators, flooring and sizes of hallways and procedure rooms. Some facilities made the investments. Others closed.
Khan said the law continues to block providers from opening new facilities.
“These are, make no doubt, restrictions that no other outpatient medical facilities have to have,” Khan said. “These restrictive laws do not deter abortions. They do not reduce abortion rates. What they do is they cause barriers to receiving abortion care and they cause delays, which increases risks to patients.”
Another Democrat in the state House, Rep. Kristine C. Howard of Chester County, also unveiled a cosponsorship memo on Monday proposing the Reproductive Freedom Act. The bill seeks to repeal the state’s Abortion Control Act, which makes it legal in Pennsylvania, and replace its terms with a more modern framework to ensure abortion is treated as health care.
With Pennsylvania’s Legislature divided — Democrats control the House, Republicans control the Senate — there’s little reason to believe abortion legislation from the majority in either body would pass through to the governor’s desk.
More than half, 53%, of abortions in 2020 were performed with medication, according to Guttmacher Institute, a reproductive rights research and policy center.
Citing federal research, the Kaiser Family Foundation reports that when performed at 9 weeks of gestation or prior, medication abortions are 99.6% effective and have a mortality rate of 0.001%.
About 81% of abortions in 2021, according to Kaiser, were performed by the 9th week of gestation.
Rep. Danielle Friel Otten, D-Chester, said mothers and grandmothers thought they won the fight for abortion access a half-century ago. That battle was undermined continually since Roe v. Wade up until the 2022 decision to vacate that ruling and return authority to state governments.
Abortion remains legal in Pennsylvania and Friel Otten said the decision to overturn the Supreme Court case motivated advocacy to protect access.
“What do these restrictive laws mean?” she asked, referring to Act 122 of 2011. “They mean more unsafe procedures. They mean more women putting their lives at risk, or the government putting their lives at risk.”