The state’s Democratic Governor Tom Wolf announced that he filed a lawsuit against the Republican-led General Assembly for what he says is their “unconstitutional attempt to ban abortion in Pennsylvania.”
The state’s Democratic Governor Tom Wolf announced that he filed a lawsuit against the Republican-led General Assembly for what he says is their “unconstitutional attempt to ban abortion in Pennsylvania.”
According to The Hill:
Wolf writes in the court filing that the commonwealth’s constitution expressly recognizes an individual’s right to privacy, which Wolf says includes the right to terminate a pregnancy. Therefore, Wolf states that the General Assembly’s amendments are a violation of Pennsylvania’s constitution.
The Pennsylvania governor also claimed in his statement that when the General Assembly packaged multiple amendments together in a joint resolution, they were pushed forward without permitting them to be voted upon separately, which Wolf called unconstitutional.
Earlier this month, the Pennsylvania state Senate advanced a proposal that would amend the state constitution to include clear language about abortion.
That proposal, advanced by the Republican-led upper chamber, states that there is no constitutional right to a taxpayer-funded abortion or any right whatsoever to abortion in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
The Pennsylvania state constitution does not give the governor the power to veto constitutional amendments, which also include joint resolutions, nor do constitutional amendments require the governor’s support to be enacted.
Today I filed a lawsuit against the Republican-led General Assembly for their unconstitutional attempt to ban abortion in PA.
— Governor Tom Wolf (@GovernorTomWolf) July 28, 2022
To try to get around my veto, they loaded proposed constitutional amendments into Senate Bill 106 and rammed it through during budget negotiations.