Tag: Roe

Wisconsin Senator Baldwin Introduces Codification of Roe v. Wade

Bradley Vasoli

U.S. Senators Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) this week introduced legislation to codify the legality of abortion everywhere on American soil. 

Twelve states currently have laws that prohibit abortion during much or all of a woman’s pregnancy and many other states have restrictions that the Baldwin-Blumenthal legislation could threaten. The senators, who count 47 Democratic senators as cosponsors of their bill, want to act federally to reverse these statutes which were allowed to go into effect when the Supreme Court overturned the 1973 pro-abortion Roe v. Wade ruling last year. 

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Pro-Abortion State Representative Wants to Defund Pennsylvania Crisis Pregnancy Centers

Bradley Vasoli

A Pennsylvania state representative announced this weekend she plans to sponsor a bill to end state subsidization of pregnancy-resource centers, accusing these organizations of improperly trying to dissuade women and “birthing people” from getting abortions. 

“Crisis pregnancy centers are organizations that purport to provide medical services to pregnant women and birthing people but instead engage in deceptive practices to prevent them from having abortions,” Representative Melissa Shusterman (D-Paoli) wrote in a memorandum encouraging colleagues to cosponsor her measure. “The damage these organizations inflict upon people cannot be understated [and] amounts to a public health emergency.” 

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Pro-Life Wisconsin PAC Endorses Justice Daniel Kelly in Supreme Court Primary

Bradley Vasoli

The Pro-Life Wisconsin Victory Fund political action committee (PAC) on Thursday came out in favor of Justice Daniel Kelly’s election to the Wisconsin Supreme Court. 

Kelly previously served on the court from 2016 to 2020 but failed to get reelected that spring. This year, he will face state Circuit Court Judge Jennifer Dorow (3rd District), Dane County Circuit Court Judge Everett Mitchell (Branch 4), and Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Janet Protasiewicz (Branch 24) in the February 21 primary. The top two vote-getters will compete for the high-court seat in an April 4 general election. 

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Ohio House Democrats Tout Pro-Abortion Legislation in Wake of March for Life

Bradley Vasoli

Pro-abortion Ohio state representatives are following up the anti-abortion Ohio March for Life that occurred earlier this week by championing a bill to codify rights established by the obsolete Roe v. Wade decision.

Representatives Michele Lepore-Hagan (D-Youngstown) and Jessica Miranda (D-Forest Park) introduced the policy in May and it has yet to receive committee consideration, let alone a vote of the House chamber. The bill lacks sufficient time for passage and both the GOP-controlled legislature and pro-life Governor Mike DeWine (R) are poised to reject it if they remain in power. But in a year when Democrats face an uphill fight in the Buckeye State, the party is investing much hope in abortion advocacy to better its electoral fortunes. 

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Abortions Increased in Ohio from 2020 to 2021

Bradley Vasoli

Pro-lifers who marched on Ohio State Capitol Square in Columbus on Wednesday had some cause for celebration in light of the June Dobbs decision by the U.S. Supreme Court. But marchers also had much to lament, including an increase in the number of abortions performed in the Buckeye State. 

According to the Ohio Department of Health’s recent report titled “Induced Abortions in Ohio, 2021,” deliberate killing of unborn children via surgery or medication rose seven percent from 2020 to the following year. In total, 21,813 pregnancies were so terminated in the state in 2021, 95 percent of those terminations obtained by women who reside in Ohio. 

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Pro-Lifers Pleased with Enthusiasm at Second Annual Pennsylvania March for Life

Bradley Vasoli

Pennsylvanians who support legal protections for innocent life including the unborn resoundingly celebrated the enthused showing at Monday’s Pennsylvania March for Life in Harrisburg, the Keystone State’s second such annual event.

Thousands of residents marched to the Capitol Building in support of legislation to prevent abortion, an issue that has seen a resurgence of interest since the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion nationwide was nullified earlier this year. Pro-abortion activists held their own rally for Democratic state Attorney General Josh Shapiro’s gubernatorial candidacy the day afterward, drawing few attendees.

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Hamilton County Judge Temporarily Halts Ohio Abortion Restriction

Bradley Vasoli

Hamilton County Common Pleas Court Judge Christian A. Jenkins this week imposed a two-week suspension on the Ohio law banning abortions for women whose unborn children have detectable heartbeats. 

Effectively, the statute, known as the “Heartbeat Law,” generally prohibits terminating pregnancies that have gone on for longer than six weeks. Governor Mike DeWine (R) signed the legislation in 2019 but agencies could not enforce it until this year after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision which legalized abortion nationwide. 

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Pennsylvania Legislator Proposes Abortion Insurance Mandate and Training Program

Bradley Vasoli

Rep. Elizabeth Fiedler (D-PA-Philadelphia) proposed two bills to promote abortion in the Keystone state: an abortion training program and a bill to require insurers to cover abortion without cost sharing. 

In a memorandum seeking cosponsors for her training measure, the democratic socialist representative from south Philadelphia indicated the legislation would bestow funding on the state Department of Health to provide medical professionals with up-to-date abortion instruction.

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Pro-Abortion Legislation Introduced in Pennsylvania House

Bradley Vasoli

Democrats in Pennsylvania’s House of Representatives recently proposed two bills to guarantee abortion rights in the Keystone State in the wake of Roe v. Wade’s overturning. 

The first measure, sponsored by Reps. Danielle Friel Otten (D-Exton) and Liz Hanbidge (D-Blue Bell) is an amendment to the Pennsylvania Constitution guaranteeing the right to obtain an abortion, acquire contraceptives or refuse fertility care. 

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Pennsylvania House Democrat Sponsors Constitutional Amendment for Abortion and Gay Marriage

Bradley Vasoli

Days after several Pennsylvania Senate Democrats proposed legislation to codify the recently overturned Roe v. Wade decision, one senator is spearheading a more expansive measure to enshrine abortion and various sexual rights in the Pennsylvania Constitution.

State Sen. Steve Santarsiero (D-Doylestown) issued a memorandum to colleagues on Tuesday asking them to cosponsor his amendment. It would codify not only the 1973 Roe ruling that forbade states from prohibiting abortion but also the 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges decision disallowing bans on gay marriage. Other “privacy”-related rights Santarsiero wishes to write into the state Constitution include those identified in the 1965 Griswold v. Connecticut ruling, which disallowed contraception bans, and in the 2003 Lawrence v. Texas decision, which barred sodomy laws. 

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Ohio Prosecutors in Columbus and Cuyahoga County Will Not Prosecute Illegal Abortions

Bradley Vasoli

Columbus City Attorney Zach Klein and Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Michael O’Malley announced this week they will not prosecute abortionists who violate Ohio’s “heartbeat law.”

Signed three years ago by Gov. Mike DeWine (R), the act disallows abortions to be performed once a fetal heartbeat is detectable, which becomes the case about six weeks into a pregnancy. With last week’s overturning of the 1973 Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion, the heartbeat law is now in effect.

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Pennsylvania Senate Democrats Propose Codifying Roe

Bradley Vasoli

Shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision on Friday, Pennsylvania Senate Democrats proposed codifying abortion rights by state statute.

Sen. Katie Muth (D-Royersford) circulated a memorandum asking Senate colleagues to cosponsor the legislation that would keep the practice legal in Pennsylvania. So far, Sens. Amanda Cappelletti (D-Norristown), Lindsey Williams (D-Pittsburgh), Maria Collett (D-North Wales), Judith Schwank (D-Reading), Christine Tartaglione (D-Philadelphia) and Carolyn Comitta (D-West Chester) have signed onto the measure.

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Abortion Issue Moves to the Forefront of the Ohio Governor’s Race

Bradley Vasoli

Ohio Democratic gubernatorial candidate Nan Whaley is highlighting her opposition to unborn children’s right to life, castigating Gov. Mike DeWine’s (R) anti-abortion record and promising more permissive policy if she gets elected.

Her reprehensions of her opponent come days after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion across America irrespective of the wishes of each state’s residents. The original decision rested on Justice Harry Blackmun’s insistence that a right to privacy implicitly contained in the Fourteenth Amendment guaranteed a woman’s right to abort her pre-born child. Blackmun’s reasoning has since elicited disapproval from legal scholars of various political stripes insofar as the Constitution never actually refers to abortion.

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Gov. Lamont Vows to Keep Abortion Legal in Connecticut If Roe v. Wade Goes

Bradley Vasoli

Gov. Ned Lamont (D-Connecticut) gathered at the Lyceum Center in Hartford with abortion advocates on Tuesday to promise abortion rights will continue in the state regardless of any forthcoming decision by the U.S. Supreme Court.

“The right to choose is under attack in numerous states across America,” Lamont declared, flanked by representatives of Planned Parenthood of Southern New England and the Connecticut Women’s Education and Legal Fund. “We won’t let that happen in Connecticut.”

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Tim Ryan, Who Was Once Pro-Life, Says He Would Have Pro-Choice ‘Litmus Test’ for SCOTUS Nominees

Anthony Gockowski

  Ohio Democrat and 2020 presidential candidate Tim Ryan said on Thursday that he would “most definitely” have a Roe v. Wade “litmus test” for Supreme Court nominees, were he to become president. “If you’re president, would you essentially have a Roe litmus test for judges?” host Chuck Todd asked on MSBNC’s “Meet the Press” Thursday night. “Yeah. Yeah, I would. Most definitely. Pure and simple. At this moment in history, people can try to dance around it. I will have someone who will protect Roe v. Wade. No question about it,” Ryan responded. WATCH: Presidential candidate @TimRyan says he would “most definitely” have a Roe v. Wade litmus test for Supreme Court judges as president. #MTPDaily pic.twitter.com/FKUuUOLfPT — Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) May 16, 2019 Ryan has been particularly vocal about his pro-choice positions as of late, especially after Alabama passed what Democrats are calling “the most extreme anti-choice measure in the country.” “Absolutely appalling move from lawmakers in Alabama,” Ryan said in response to the news. “This would effectively ban all abortions—including cases of rape and incest, punish women, and threaten doctors. Government has no place in this conversation.” Absolutely appalling move from lawmakers in Alabama. This would…

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