Pennsylvania Can Bar Funds for Abortions
As many as 5,000 fewer abortions will be performed in Pennsylvania each year now that the state Supreme Court has upheld the commonwealth’s right to bar Medicaid payments for most cases, a legislator said today.
In a 7-0 ruling Thursday, the court said a section of Pennsylvania’s 1982 Abortion Control Act denying Medical Assistance payments for abortions does not violate the state Constitution.
The opinion said the issue was “whether, because the commonwealth provides funds to indigent women for a safe delivery, they are therefore equally obligated to fund an abortion.”
The state has no obligation “to subsidize the individual exercise of a constitutionally protected right,” the court said.
The state paid for 11,800 abortions in 1983.
State Rep. Stephen Freind said the decision would “save the lives of between 3,000 and 5,000 innocent unborn children every year. “
“There are those who say that when we cut off funding we are being discriminatory against the poor because the middle class and wealthy can still pay for abortions, while the poor cannot. I’m saying they’re half right, but for the wrong reason,” he said.
“We can’t save the lives of the unborn of the middle class and the rich. But at least now we can save some of the lives of the unborn of the poor.”
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