Fifty years ago, a deep and heartfelt chasm was created when the U.S. Supreme Court handed down its Roe v Wade decision. While that divide remains deep, scientific advances over the past five decades have created new understandings, which are impacting public attitudes about abortion today. But the pro-abortion governor and supreme court in Harrisburg seem more interested in scoring political points and forcing taxpayers to fund abortions than in fostering understanding.
The more scientists and doctors investigate, the more evidence we find that human life begins at fertilization. We also now know, for example, that an unborn child’s heart is actively beating by the fifth or sixth week. Pain receptors begin forming at the seventh week. By week 15, the baby is able to make facial expressions and brain development is so far along that it can process pain.
But now a case – Allegheny Reproductive Health Center v. Pennsylvania Department of Human Services – threatens to not only discard 50 years of scientific insights, but seeks to strike down Pennsylvania’s law prohibiting taxpayer funding of abortion via Medicaid. Thomas Jefferson was correct when he wrote, “That to compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves and abhors, is sinful and tyrannical.”
It gets worse. A win for the abortion industry in this case would not only force state funding of abortion, but would likely enshrine abortion as a right in Pennsylvania’s Constitution. That’s a chilling prospect, considering that abortion providers have been allowed to stay open even when they repeatedly fail health and safety inspections. A bipartisan group of lawmakers passed legislation requiring abortion clinics to be inspected like any other surgical facility in 2011. The results have been troubling, to say the least. Six Planned Parenthood clinics failed inspection in 2019, because of reasons like "failing to report child sex abuse" and "improper storage of aborted babies."
Similarly, the Philadelphia Women's Center, which performs over 6,000 abortions annually, failed inspection in February 2020 because its staff didn't obtain parental or guardian consent before performing abortions on minors. They also failed their most recent inspection, including infractions like hiring unlicensed nurses. Far from deserving subsidization with Pennsylvanian taxpayer dollars, these lawbreakers should have their businesses shuttered.
While abortion advocates like to portray themselves as and reasonable, their actions reveal their true barbaric nature. Recent reporting uncovered that the University of Pittsburgh conducted experiments using aborted babies. Multiple doctors contend that the school potentially extracted organs from live babies. Sadly, state officials appear more interested in funding abortion with tax dollars than in discovering what happened at the school.
If this wasn't enough, Gov. Tom Wolf showed his true priorities during the pandemic by designating abortion providers as “life-sustaining” business. Even as Pennsylvania's doctors and nurses struggled to save lives and remain safe during the height of the pandemic, more than 1,700 abortions were estimated to be performed. As it is, abortion operators and their political backers in Harrisburg are single-minded in prioritizing abortion during all stages of pregnancy above the concerns of safety, ethical standards, and even fiscal budget constraints.
If abortion is declared a constitutional right, the Commonwealth’s limited protections, including those put into place after the Kermit Gosnell “House of Horrors” scandal, would be invalidated, and all future pro-life laws in Pennsylvania would be prohibited.
That’s one reason why we hope you join us at the first ever official Pennsylvania March for Life in Harrisburg on Monday, September 27. Pennsylvanians can still make their voice heard above pro-abortion judicial activists by demanding a constitutional amendment that would reverse any Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruling and prevent any future rulings declaring a “right to an abortion” in the Pennsylvania Constitution. Without it, Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court is likely to impose taxpayers to fund elective abortion at any stage and place the Commonwealth under the dark control of abortion extremists.