Anti-abortion legislation introduced in PA

HARRISBURG, PA — State Sen. Doug Mastriano and Rep. Stephanie Borowicz introduced legislation on October 21 that would restrict a pregnant woman’s ability to seek abortions.

Sometimes referred to as “heartbeat bills,” Senate Bill 912 and House Bill 1977 would require doctors to check for a fetal heartbeat before performing an abortion. Should a heartbeat get detected, the abortion becomes prohibited. Similar legislation has been enacted in 10 other Republican-led state legislatures.

“If a person is pronounced dead when their heart stops, why are they not considered alive when their heartbeat begins?” said Borowicz at a press conference on Monday. She also quoted a Bible verse which she said “makes it simple.”

The keynote speaker was Kathy Barnette, a conservative political commentator and radio host who spoke through tears as she explained that she was conceived as a result of a rape when her mother was just 11 years old. She also argued that the pro-choice movement has resulted in the annihilation of black people.

“Lynching got nothing on Planned Parenthood,” Barnette said. “What slavery could not do in 200 years, and what Jim Crow laws could not do in 100 years, abortion and organizations like Planned Parenthood have succeeded in annihilating whole generations of black people.”

Gov. Tom Wolf has vowed to veto any such abortion legislation that comes to his office.

Sen. Lisa Baker, a Republican who represents Wayne and Pike counties, has opposed abortion restricting legislation in the past. She made statewide headlines in 2017 when, during a debate on the Senate floor, she shared a personal story about her daughter Allison getting delivered stillborn after getting diagnosed with a rare chromosome abnormality.

“The hard truth is that medical science is unable to predict or detect a variety of genetic abnormalities on a schedule,” she said in 2017.

Baker was one of three Republicans to vote against a 2017 bill that would have changed the threshold for most abortions from 24 weeks to 20.