Pennsylvania Supreme Court Decision is one victory on the road to true abortion access
(January 29, 2024) Harrisburg, PA - Across the state of Pennsylvania, reproductive rights advocates celebrate a huge win as the state Supreme Court provided a ruling that sent the case Allegheny Reproductive Health Center v. Pennsylvania Department of Human Services back down to the Commonwealth Court, with a legal opinion that abortion is a fundamental right. According to The Women’s Law Project, two Justices of the Court explicitly stated that Pennsylvania's state 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.” This ruling came after decades of work from advocates and organizers. This case began when a group of seven abortion providers and numerous supporters argued that the 1982 Abortion Control Act violates Pennsylvania’s Equal Rights Amendment on the basis of sex. In a historic act, The Court overruled a precedent that prevented abortion rights providers from challenging the 1982 Abortion Control Act, which bans Medicaid funds for abortion
New Voices for Reproductive Justice is honored to be one of many lead supporters on the amicus brief that fought for the fundamental human rights of our communities. As of February 2021, approximately 3.1 million people were enrolled in Medicaid in Pennsylvania. According to the Guttmacher Institute, “because of social and economic inequality linked to racism and discrimination, women of color are disproportionately likely to be insured by the Medicaid program.” The cost of an abortion in the first-trimester is an average of $500—almost a third of the monthly income for a Medicaid-eligible family of three. The average cost of a second-trimester abortion is $1,195, and more later in pregnancy.
New Voices for Reproductive Justice centers the rights of Black women, queer, and marginalized people. “Our communities are having to decide between using savings and low-income wages for other medical and primary needs such as the high rise of insulin, rent, and cost of living,” says New Voices Policy Manager, Cheyenne Wyzzard-Jones, “We celebrate the win of securing abortion as a right, however we understand that the work continues as we will hold the right to challenge securing an abortion through financial assistance.” Reproductive Justice is the belief that a safe and sustainable community is a human right, and there is nothing sustainable in having to financially choose between fundamental reproductive care and necessities like rent and food.
It should be noted that this historic ruling was argued under the protection of the Equal Rights Amendment on the basis of discrimination of sex. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court took seriously their duty to uphold these rights, which we applaud. We also know that abortion is not just “a women’s right” but a people's right. We know that cis-gender women are not the only people who are seeking abortions, and New Voices for Reproductive Justice seeks to uphold the right to full reproductive care for people who wish to have children or not.
New Voices Interim Executive Director, Beulah Osueke, shared with All* Above All & All* Above All Action Fund the important distinction between reproductive rights and reproductive justice as it relates to this Supreme Court Decision, “Today, the court stood firmly on the side of reproductive rights. This decision comes as a result of years of advocacy and organizing pushing our elected officials to lift discriminatory and antiquated laws that fall hardest on communities of color in Pennsylvania. While the legal right to abortion does not equate to meaningful abortion access that is reproductive justice, this decision is a powerful step in the right direction to protecting abortion care in our state. Today we celebrate the end of a decades-long injustice and carry on in our work to expand abortion access for Pennsylvanians across the state.”