In a typically Republican bit of grand-standing, Pennsylvania’s Republican-controlled legislature passed a restrictive anti-abortion bill, even though they knew Gov. Tom Wolf would veto it.
HARRISBURG — A controversial bill to restrict abortion rights in Pennsylvania is heading to Gov. Wolf, opening the door for a showdown between him and the Republican-controlled legislature.
Wolf, a Democrat, has promised to veto the bill, calling it “the most extreme anti-choice legislation in the country” and “an assault on the doctor-patient relationship by politicians without medical or health expertise.”
Abortion bill heads to Gov. Wolf for veto
Neither the House nor the Senate have the two-thirds majority required to over-ride Gov. Wolf’s veto but that didn’t stop them from ostentatiously playing to their Forced Birther base.
"Senate Bill 3 is a particularly vile assault on a woman's right to make her own medical decisions," Wolf said. "I'll veto any effort to restrict the rights of women to make their own health care decisions."
Bill banning late-term abortions on its way to governor despite his threatened veto
As if shortening the period during which abortion is legal isn’t enough, these Republican gyneticians* went even further in playing doctor:
In addition to banning abortions at the 20-week mark, the bill would make it a felony for doctors to cause “the death of an unborn child by means of dismembering the unborn child and extracting the unborn child one piece at a time.” The bill contains some exceptions “to prevent either the death of the pregnant woman or the substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function of the woman.”
...Opponents of the bill, including the Pennsylvania Medical Society, have noted that women often get a key ultrasound around the 20th week that allows doctors to detect abnormalities that can be life-threatening to the fetus.
“I suspect that physicians don’t want to be forced to choose between compliance with arbitrary, unnecessary barriers put in place by non-medical professionals from doing what they know is best for the women in front of them,” (Rep. Daniel) Frankel said.
Later in the debate, one of his Democratic colleagues, Rep. Leanne Krueger-Braneky of Delaware County, read examples of women who learned about fetal abnormalities after the 20-week mark.
www.philly.com/...
The bill was debated for a little more than three hours.
Immediately after the vote, the Pro-Life Coalition of Pennsylvania fired off a news release pledging to work to elect a new governor next year who will support the bill while the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania vowed to continue to fight to ensure the measure is never implemented. www.pennlive.com/...
*gynetician: a politician who thinks s/he knows more about women's health than doctors do.