Government

Pennsylvania Legislators Draft Draconian Abortion Law, Urge Ladies To Think Of Men's Feelings

Pretty sure men's feelings are the cause of most pregnancies, but OK.

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(Photo by ANNA GASSOT/AFP/Getty Images)

Let’s start with the good news: Democratic Governor Tom Wolf has promised to veto all three of the anti-abortion bills which passed out of the Pennsylvania House Health Committee yesterday. For the time being, none of this is becoming law.

Which is perhaps why these state legislators felt free to pass such blatantly unconstitutional, wildly unpopular claptrap. These dogs know they’re in no danger of catching the car. The Heartbeat Bill (House Bill 904) would ban all abortions after six weeks, when most women don’t even know they’re pregnant, while the Down Syndrome Protection Act (House Bill 1500) would make it illegal to access abortion care after a Down Syndrome diagnosis.

Rep. Stephanie Borowicz, R-Clinton County, sponsor of the heartbeat bill, bragged that it would “save so many lives.” The congresswoman has apparently never looked at a map, since that might reveal that most Pennsylvanians live just a few hours drive from Maryland, DC, Delaware, and New York, where abortion will remain legal.

Neither of these bills pass constitutional muster, at least until SCOTUS magics away Roe, and possibly not even then. The bills contain no exception for rape, incest, maternal health, or fetal anomalies inconsistent with survival. And in case that last one is too euphemistic, these “pro-life” legislators are perfectly content to force parents to carry a fetus with crippling deformities to term, only to watch it die in the hospital shortly after what the statute refers to as “expulsion or extraction” from the mother.

But the Committee really outdid itself with the Final Disposition of Fetal Remains Act (House Bill 118). This law would bar healthcare facilities from treating the products of miscarriage or abortion as medical waste, requiring instead that they be buried or cremated like a patient who has passed away. And in case that’s too euphemistic, they want medical facilities to collect up the liquid discharge after an abortion or miscarriage an offer to give it a funeral. Forgive the graphic imagery, but that’s what we’re talking about here.

Adding insult to injury, these pro-life legislators would require a death certificate at a cost of $20 to dispose of these remains in accordance with the law.

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The Erie Times-News website quotes Rep. Frank Ryan, R-Lebanon County, who discussed his own experiences with miscarriage and said he was “asking the ladies in the room” to “recognize how men feel.” Because the most important thing about miscarriages is how they affect men, of course.

“Once again, members are working to pass anti-choice legislation that would undermine the doctor-patient relationship and limit an individual’s right to decide what happens to their body – including re-running appalling bills that I have vetoed in the past,” Governor Wolf said. And it’s a good thing, too, since SCOTUS let Indiana’s fetal remains law stand in 2019, and that was before Justice Barrett replaced Justice Ginsburg.

Now, who knows what happens? Will the Court hold a funeral for stare decisis? Or will they simply chuck women’s bodily autonomy in the red trash can and pretend it never happened?

It’s gonna be so, so bad.

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Abortion fight ramps up in Pa. as Republicans advance pro-life bills. What laws would change [Erie Times-News]

Elizabeth Dye lives in Baltimore where she writes about law and politics.

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