PITTSBURGH — As if it wasn’t important enough already, the 2022 midterm election cycle in Pennsylvania — a state whose Democratic governor has vowed for years to veto any bills limiting abortion access — took on new meaning overnight, candidates on both sides of the aisle said late Monday and early Tuesday.
Contenders for Pennsylvania governor and for U.S. Senate, both Republican and Democratic, signaled the stakes are higher than ever in the wake of a Politico report Monday night that revealed the Supreme Court, at least in an initial draft majority opinion, has voted to strike down Roe v. Wade and its guarantee of federal constitutional protections of abortion rights.
Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts on Tuesday confirmed the authenticity of the leaked draft and said he had ordered an investigation into what he called and “egregious breach of trust,” according to the Associated Press.
Top-ticket Democrats were more vocal in the hours after the new reporting, with the three main contenders for Pennsylvania’s open Senate seat calling for immediate action in Congress and the lone Democratic candidate for governor — the sitting state attorney general — saying winning the governor’s race is the best way to protect abortion rights now.
Every main Republican candidate for U.S. Senate has said they’d support various measures restricting abortion access.
The GOP gubernatorial candidates have, too, and would likely get the chance — if they win in November — to do so at the helm of a Republican trifecta.
Gov. Tom Wolf, a Democrat, noted that an official ruling hasn’t yet been made by the Supreme Court but that once it does, it’ll be “up to states to pass legislation to change abortion laws.”
“Abortion is and will remain legal in Pennsylvania,” Wolf tweeted Monday night.
On the federal level, Democratic candidates have been sounding the alarm on what they say is a need to codify Roe v. Wade into law for months.
Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, the front-runner in recent polls for the Democratic nomination for Senate, said in reaction to the Politico report that Democrats have to “act quickly and get rid of the filibuster” in order to pass the Women’s Health Protection Act.
In anticipation of the potential overturning of Roe, the House passed the legislation last September, guaranteeing a woman’s right to an abortion in a manner that would make it harder for courts and individual states to levy restrictions.
The bill stalled in the 50-50 Senate. President Joe Biden said Tuesday it’ll take electing more pro-choice Senators and a majority in the House to pass legislation codifying Roe.
“We cannot afford to wait,” Fetterman said Monday night, calling the right to an abortion “sacred.”
Though major decisions by the court can sometimes be subject to multiple drafts and vote-trading, the initial draft majority opinion — written by Justice Samuel Alito and obtained by Politico — is an unwavering reputation of the 1973 Roe decision.
U.S. Rep. Conor Lamb, who has referred to Roe as settled constitutional law during his Senate campaign, warned his party — like he’s done before — that if Democrats lose Pennsylvania, Congress may never save Roe.
Poor women will suffer most, Lamb added in a message Monday evening on Twitter, noting that he’s already voted in the House to codify Roe into law.
“That's my record,” Lamb wrote, also touting a 100% pro-choice voting record in Washington while also winning elections in Republican-friendly districts. “If I'm your nominee I'll give you the campaign you deserve.”
State Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta, who’s introduced bills himself in Harrisburg to remove barriers for reproductive health in Pennsylvania, said it’s time to expand the Supreme Court bench to “reflect the will of the people and to restore the balance of justice in America.”
Kenyatta has been the only candidate of the three to call for an expansion to the bench, which he says has been taken over by an “increasingly radical right wing majority intent on rolling the clock back on settled law and precedent.”
In a recent debate, Fetterman countered that Democrats shouldn’t “rig the rules” because they do not like the outcome.
“I wish we had a 6-to-3 Democratic majority on the Supreme Court,” Fetterman said in April. “The fact is that we don’t, and I don’t believe fundamentally altering the structure of the Supreme Court is the answer.”
It’s clear that no matter which Democrat emerges from the primary, they’ll face a Republican in the general election who wants to restrict abortion access.
Dr. Mehmet Oz, one of the leading candidates for the GOP Senate nomination, has said life starts at conception and often tells the story of operating as a heart surgeon on a 5-day-old child — whose heart was the size of a pinky finger nail — urging audiences to imagine if the baby was terminated nine months earlier.
In a televised debate in April, Oz said former President Donald Trump endorsed him, in part, because he’s anti-abortion. Asked by moderators if there should be exceptions for rape, incest or life of the mother, Oz said there should be an exception for life of the mother: “We don’t want mothers dying as they try to give birth to a child,” he said.
Oz, in a statement agreeing with the Supreme Court majority’s draft opinion, said Roe was “wrongly decided.”
“Abortion laws should be left up to the American people and their elected representatives,” Oz said. “I look forward to supporting pro-life legislation that saves innocent lives in the U.S. Senate.”
Former hedge fund CEO Dave McCormick has hit Oz for any comments he had made in the past indicating he was sympathetic to the pro-choice movement. On his campaign website, it says McCormick is “pro-life,” has attended the March for Life rally in D.C. and “will continue to advocate for the rights of the unborn.”
If Justice Alito’s draft is officially adopted, it would effectively allow each state to decide whether to restrict or ban abortion, according to Politico.
That means that in Pennsylvania, the near future of abortion rights here could come down to November’s gubernatorial election.
Shapiro reacted to Politico’s reporting by insisting he’ll stand up for women and their right to choose, and that Americans can no longer rely on the courts to preserve abortion rights. His campaign sent out a fundraising pitch to supporters late Monday saying, “It’s clearer now than ever before. There is one way to ensure we protect abortion rights in Pennsylvania — winning this Governor’s race.”
“It is going to be up to the states to protect the right to choose — and we must make sure abortion stays legal and accessible in Pennsylvania,” Shapiro wrote.
Shapiro, in a press call with reporters on Tuesday, said he can all but guarantee that the Republican legislature will pass a near total ban on abortion and the only protection is a Democratic governor’s veto pen.
“Every one of the nine Republicans running for governor will sign a bill restricting abortion,” Shapiro said. ”Let me be clear where I stand: I will veto any and all of those bills that restrict the right to abortion here in Pennsylvania.”
The GOP front-runners, who have all been on the record saying they’d sign laws restricting abortion, applauded the prospect of the court overturning Roe.
Lou Barletta, the former U.S. congressman, said if Politico’s reporting is true, “it would be an enormous, life-saving victory for unborn children.”
Reiterating his stance that he will “not prejudge or predict” the legislation that will reach his desk as governor, Barletta said he will be a “pro-life governor, and I will sign pro-life legislation.”
State Sen. Doug Mastriano, who’s labeled abortion his No. 1 issue, called on the state Legislature to pass laws in Pennsylvania “to protect innocent life.”
And former U.S. Attorney Bill McSwain said on Twitter, “If true, this is of course the correct decision, both constitutionally and morally. But this leak is an outrageous attack on the Court.” McSwain was referring to the unprecedented nature of the court’s draft opinion going public prior to a final decision.
Businessman Dave White, applauding the prospect of the ruling, said his top priority as governor would be to “ensure that every life is welcomed and valued in our Commonwealth.”
“With the decision returning the issue of abortion to the elected representatives of the people, it is more important than ever to defeat the unabashedly pro-abortion Josh Shapiro,” White said.
At a recent debate, White said he does not support exceptions for rape, incest or when the life of the mother is at stake.
Mastriano doesn’t support exceptions, either. He has said he would sign into law a so-called heartbeat bill — which he’s sponsored — that would enact an abortion ban in Pennsylvania from the moment a fetal heartbeat is detected. Wolf threatened to veto that bill in 2019.
Shapiro called the GOP front-runners’ views on abortion “wildly out of touch with the majority of Pennsylvanians.”
