Dec 20, 2021 5 min read

A bill that would impose new requirements on abortion providers cleared a state Senate committee last week, as lawmakers and advocates prepare for a sea change in abortion law nationwide.

On Tuesday, a Senate panel passed House Bill 118, which requires medical facilities to offer patients a choice in what happens to fetal remains – whether the result of a miscarriage or an abortion. While the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Francis X. Ryan, R-Lebanon, said it is meant to offer comfort and closure to those dealing with miscarriages, opponents described it as another attempt to interfere with abortion rights.

Ryan proposed the bill in January, explicitly comparing it to laws elsewhere that imposed new rules on abortion providers. He said the bill – which he called the Unborn Child Dignity Act – would emulate one in Indiana that required providers to bury or cremate remains.

In February, state Planned Parenthood officers said Ryan’s bill “forces (patients) into potentially traumatizing conversations they can already have if they choose, and creates a public record of pregnancy outcomes that violates their privacy, compromises their safety, and further stigmatizes people seeking abortions.”

This week, Ryan’s GOP colleagues on the Health and Human Services Committee voted to clarify the bill’s language with an amendment that stresses the burial process would be optional. Democrats on the committee voted against it regardless.

“The Unborn Child Dignity Act will allow parents the final decision-making authority over the remains of their child even if it is lost prior to birth,” Ryan said when he first introduced the proposal.

The bill already passed the state House in June, although not by a large enough margin to override Gov. Tom Wolf’s promised veto.

While the bill wouldn’t impose sweeping abortion restrictions, it represents another salvo in a battle over the procedure’s availability. The U.S. Supreme Court is set to rule next year on a Texas law that could end with the reversal of Roe v. Wade – the landmark case that made abortion a right nationwide.

Abortion advocates are already preparing for a legal environment in which conservative states are empowered to totally ban abortion, a legal status already effectively in place in several states. With a conservative Legislature but a Democratic governor, Pennsylvania has already been identified as a refuge for those in other states seeking legal abortions.

Advocates are also banking on the widespread availability of mail-order pills to fill legal gaps in a post-Roe v. Wade world. On Thursday, the Food and Drug Administration lifted a restriction on pills that can be used for home abortions, making it easier for patients to speak remotely with doctors and circumvent brick-and-mortar clinics.

Rep. seeks privatization amendment

A lawmaker said she’s moving to privatize the state liquor store system by constitutional amendment – the latest GOP attempt to avoid Wolf’s veto by changing the state’s foundational document.

In a memo this week, Rep. Natalie Mihalek, R-Allegheny, said she will propose privatization by changing the constitution, rather than by passing a simple bill. The law would have to pass in two consecutive legislative sessions, then go to the voters as a ballot measure before altering the constitution.

“It has been 88 years since the end of prohibition, and it is time for this commonwealth to modernize the sale of liquor once and for all,” Mihalek said.

Lawmakers have repeatedly tried to chip away at the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board’s authority over wine and liquor sales. While the state has opened up beer sales in more locations and briefly allowed to-go cocktails, many in Harrisburg still aim to privatize the multibillion-dollar industry entirely.

Wolf calls for voting rights law

President Joe Biden’s allies are having a tough time passing key legislation, even as governors like Wolf encourage them to press ahead on voting rights.

Last week, Democratic lawmakers shelved the Build Back Better plan, the 10-year, multi-trillion-dollar package that would have funded an array of social and climate priorities. Facing opposition from fellow Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., they instead turned to legislation that could make it easier to vote across the country.

They had encouragement from a collection of Democratic governors, among them Wolf, of Pennsylvania.

On Monday, 17 governors wrote to Senate leadership pleading for the passage of the Freedom to Vote Act and the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Amendment Act, which together would allow nationwide early voting, make it harder to gerrymander election maps and reestablish protections from the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

“Without decisive action by the federal government this year to protect voters’ access to the ballot and ensure the integrity and transparency of our elections, the voices of Americans across the country, especially Americans of color, will be suppressed,” the governors wrote.

Biden appears to agree, calling voting rights legislation “the single biggest issue” of the week.

But hopes for the bills could be dim.

Democrats would have to suspend the filibuster, the Senate rule that effectively sets a 60-vote threshold to pass most bills. And at least one Senate Democrat, Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., showed little interest in doing that this week.

“(We’ve) been extremely disappointed,” the governors said, “to see Republicans use congressional procedures to block the paths of these straightforward, commonsense, and long-overdue pieces of legislation in the Senate.”

Ryan Brown covers statewide politics for Ogden Newspapers. He can be reached at rbrown@altoonamirror.com.