Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, an abortion proponent, is siding with abortion groups who are suing to overturn a decades-old law preventing taxpayer dollars from funding abortions.
In 2019, abortion businesses, including Planned Parenthood, sued to overturn a court ruling which upheld limits on how state Medicaid dollars could be spent. This included a ban on funding abortion with those taxpayer dollars. The abortion groups claimed the 1982 Pennsylvania law violated the constitutional equal protection rights of low-income women. But in March of 2021, a seven-judge panel ruled against the abortion businesses, finding that taxpayers would not have to be forced to fund abortions in Pennsylvania.
However, in January of 2024, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court said a lower court must hear a challenge to the law, overturning the lower court’s ruling. Alexis McGill Johnson, Planned Parenthood Federation of America’s president and CEO, said it was a “landmark victory for reproductive freedom,” while the state House’s Republican floor leader, Rep. Bryan Cutler, accused the Supreme Court of “seeking to overstep its authority and change well-settled law.”
The lower court will now have to reconsider the case, with Justice Christine Donohue writing in the majority opinion that the Pennsylvania constitution “secures the fundamental right to reproductive autonomy, which includes a right to decide whether to have an abortion or to carry a pregnancy to term.”
As the case continues to progress, Shapiro released a statement this week saying he would not defend the law, and believes it should be overturned (emphasis added):
Today, my Administration is filing notice with Commonwealth Court reaffirming our commitment to equitable access to reproductive health care and advising that the Commonwealth will not defend the current state law banning Medicaid coverage for abortion services.
Pennsylvania’s Constitution prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex — and earlier this year, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled in Allegheny Reproductive Health Center v. Pennsylvania Department of Human Services that the current ban on Medicaid coverage for abortion services amounts to sex-based discrimination and sent this issue back to Commonwealth Court. Following this ruling, my Administration today filed notice stating that the current ban imposes a burden on women that is not sustainable, and therefore violates our State Constitution.
As Governor, I will always uphold our state’s Constitution and protect a woman’s right to make decisions over her own body and have the health care services she needs. My Administration looks forward to making our arguments in Court and is urging the Court to strike down this ban that denies Pennsylvanians access to health care solely because of their sex and clearly runs counter to the recent Supreme Court ruling.
Essentially, the Shapiro administration has filed a brief with the court arguing that, though they are bound by law and cannot consent to the elimination of the ban, they likewise are refusing to submit a defense for it, either.
The move has been criticized by pro-life groups since then.
“This decision leaves the taxpaying citizens of Pennsylvania without a voice on one of the most debated and divisive issues of our time and virtually clears the path for court-mandated taxpayer funding of the taking of innocent human life through abortion, and more,” Michael Geer, President of Pennsylvania Family Institute, said in a statement.
He added, “Our system and the rule of law demand that both sides in a case have legitimate legal advocacy of their positions. In this case, Pennsylvania’s duly enacted Abortion Control Act, supported by a large segment of the population, is left without a defender, as the Shapiro administration (which should be defending the law) walks into court in lockstep with the abortion industry that sued the Commonwealth and its people.”
