Pa. lawmakers gear up to defend reproductive rights

Members of the Pa. Women’s Health Caucus celebrated their legislative victories from the previous session and announced their agenda to protect reproductive rights over the next two years.  

Monday marked the first dual session day of the new calendar for the House and Senate in Harrisburg, and Democrats from the Pa. Women’s Health Caucus used it as an opportunity to highlight their agenda for the next two years. 

They aim to expand reproductive freedoms and access to health care, ending the maternal mortality crisis and building off their legislative victories in the previous two-year session. 

“We are committed to ensuring that all women in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania have access to the care they need to live healthy lives and to protect the right of every Pennsylvanian to make their own reproductive health care decisions,” State Sen. Judy Schwank (D-Berks) said during Monday’s press conference.

“As we stand here today, the future of reproductive health care in the United States is deeply uncertain. With anti-abortion lawmakers holding majorities in both the US House and Senate, an anti-abortion president in the White House, we must operate under the assumption that women’s rights to make their own health care choices is on the line.”

Abortion and reproductive health care remains legal in Pennsylvania thanks to Democrats controlling the state house and governor’s mansion, but the Pa. Women’s Health Caucus see themselves as a backstop to President Donald Trump’s agenda. 

During Monday’s press conference, State Sen. Amanda Cappelletti (D-Montgomery) shared an emotional story about how she lost a pregnancy to a miscarriage days before the 2024 presidential election. 

Cappelletti, co-chair of the Pa. Women’s Health Caucus, has been open about her previous reproductive health care issues. 

“Many of you have heard me speak previously about the difficulties and obstacles that I have faced, to start a family,” Cappelletti said. 

“But what most of you don’t know is that a week before the federal elections in November I was supposed to go for an ultrasound to find out the gender of a child that I was so excited to add to my family only to find out that the heartbeat had stopped.”

Cappelletti went on to explain that she needed an abortion, which would be banned in states such as Texas or Florida, or face possible health complications due to the miscarriage.

In the previous session, Democrats were able to expand access for MRI’s and breast cancer screenings, placing menstrual products in public schools and banning doctors from conducting pelvic exams without prior consent. 

“The hour is critical when we see what’s happening in so many states, when we see what’s happening in Washington, D.C.,” House Speaker Joanna McClinton said. “Our colleagues in the Pennsylvania Senate, in the Pennsylvania House, we must rise to the occasion. It is urgent. It is critical, and it is what our constituents have elected us to do.”