PA Lawmakers Ask Govenor To Protect PA Abortion Providers

HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania’s Women’s Health Caucus asked Gov. Tom Walk to take executive action to protect health care providers who treat out-of-state patients seeking abortion care.

“Pennsylvania is one of the five most convenient places people will travel for safe and legal abortion care,” the caucus members wrote in a letter sent Monday to Gov. Tom Wolf.

The caucus consists of 56 lawmakers across the state from Philadelphia, Montgomery, Chester, Delaware, Bucks, Lehigh, Northampton, Westmoreland, Dauphin, Lackawanna, Berks, Allegheny, Lancaster and Monroe counties. The members are listed here.

Sens. Amanda Cappelletti, of Delaware and Montgomery counties and Judy Schwank of Berks County; and Reps. Morgan Cephas of Philadelphia County; and Mary Jo Daley of Montgomery County are co-chairing the caucus.

“We want to make it clear as can be that abortion is still legal in Pennsylvania and we will not allow neighboring states to dictate or intimidate providers in the commonwealth,” Schwank said in a prepared statement.

“It's unthinkable that a medical professional could be charged with a crime or face jail time for providing an individual with a safe medical procedure. We need to follow the lead of other states and afford protection to Pennsylvania abortion providers who are operating in accordance with state law.”

The lawmakers wrote in the letter that governors in Massachusetts, Minnesota, and New Mexico have signed orders to protect providers.

In a letter to Wolf, the caucus requested these immediate actions:

• Prohibit executive departments and agencies from assisting another state’s investigation

into a person or entity for receiving or delivering reproductive health services that are legal in Pennsylvania.

• Direct the secretary of State to work with the boards of professional licensure, to the extent their independence can be maintained, to protect Pennsylvania providers who deliver reproductive health care services from losing their professional licenses or receiving other professional discipline based on out-of-state charges so long as the services would have been lawful and consistent with standards for good professional practice in Pennsylvania.

• Decline to cooperate with extradition requests from other states pursuing criminal charges against individuals who received, assisted with, or performed legal reproductive health services in Pennsylvania.

“We thank Governor Wolf for his leadership on behalf of women and families and birthing people across the commonwealth and his steadfast efforts to protect and preserve the right to bodily autonomy and the choice of if and when to have a child,” Cephas said.

“It’s important to extend those protections to the health care providers who work to ensure this choice through an executive order.”