PA Women Legislators React To Kansas Abortion Constitutional Amendment Defeat

HARRISBURG — Women legislators in Pennsylvania are reacting positively to the news that Kansas voters this week defeated a proposed constitutional amendment in that state that would have restricted abortion.

The Women's Health Caucus of the Pennsylvania General Assembly issued a statement Wednesday hailing what they say is a victory in Kansas that would maintain abortion rights in the Sunflower State.

"We applaud the people of Kansas who took to the polls to defeat a constitutional amendment that would remove freedom over their bodies," reads the statement from the Women's Health Caucus. "Let this be a warning to those who voted in the dead of night to move forward a 'No Right to Abortion' constitutional amendment in Pennsylvania: you can try to do an end-around a pro-choice governor, but you cannot do an end-around the voters."

The statement was issued by Women's Health Caucus Co-chairs Sens. Amanda Cappelletti, a Montgomery County Democrat, Judy Schwank, a Berks County Democrat, and Reps. Morgan Cephas, a Philadelphia Democrat and Mary Jo Daley, a Montgomery County Democrat.

The caucus members were referring to the fact that the Pennsylvania House of Representatives and Senate passed legislation just before adjourning for the summer that would put a similar constitutional amendment on the Pennsylvania election ballot.

The measure would ask voters whether there should be no constitutional right to an abortion in Pennsylvania, and whether there should be no right to state taxpayer dollars used in the procedure.

The women legislators said that the victory this week in Kansas, which defeated similar proposed constitutional language, shows the "power collective action has in defeating these minority-held, antifreedom policies.

"We hope this wakeup call will deter the Pennsylvania constitutional amendment from receiving a vote next session, and we can instead focus on legislation that would actually help our constituents like increasing the minimum wage, requiring paid family leave, and requiring insurance coverage for contraceptives," the legislators stated.

In Pennsylvania, in order for a constitutional amendment to be adopted, it must pass both bodies of the legislature with identical language in two consecutive legislative sessions and it must then be approved by voters at the ballot box.

States across the country have been moving to either restrict or outright ban abortion in the wake of a United States Supreme Court decision that effectively overturned Roe v. Wade, which had previously guaranteed a right to an abortion under the federal constitution.