Democratic candidate for PA Attorney General Eugene DePasquale promises to protect abortion access during debate

Both candidates gave different answers when it comes to protecting abortion access during Thursday’s attorney general debate. DePasquale promised to never prosecute women for getting an abortion while Sunday promised to follow the law. 

Protecting abortion access and reproductive rights was a main topic in Thursday’s debate between Eugene DePasquale and Dave Sunday for the open Pennsylvania Attorney General seat. 

DePasquale is the Democratic nominee and served as Pennsylvania Auditor General from 2012 to 2020. His opponent, Sunday, is the Republican nominee and the current District Attorney in York County. 

“I will never prosecute a woman or a doctor that performs an abortion,” DePasquale said when asked if the candidates would do so under a potential abortion ban in Pennsylvania. 

“I will never prosecute a woman for having an abortion and I will protect any woman that’s coming here from one of those states. I will defend their right to reproductive freedom as well.”

Sunday, however, danced around the question claiming that he would defend Pennsylvania’s abortion laws. 

“That’s been the law here for over 40 years. I was like six when that law was passed and just like I would every other law, I will absolutely enforce and defend the abortion laws in Pennsylvania,” Sunday said. 

DePasquale went on to criticize Sunday’s response, highlighting the fact that Republicans, nationally, are trying to ban abortion through Project 2025 and that Pennsylvania Republicans have actively tried to push a constitutional amendment that would bypass the governor’s office and ban abortion. 

“Project 2025 is calling for a nationwide ban and Republican allies of Dave are trying to push a constitutional amendment in the legislature that would override the governor and create a statewide ban in Pennsylvania,” DePasquale said. “You heard him not say it right there. I’ll say it again. I will never prosecute a woman for having an abortion.”

DePasquale also hit Sunday for being “funded by a billionaire that wants that nationwide [abortion] ban.”

The Keystone previously reported that Sunday’s campaign received a $5.5 million boost from a political action committee funded by Pennsylvania’s richest billionaire, Jeffrey Yass. 

Yass, who is worth close to $50 billion, spent millions on TV commercials and mailers supporting Sunday’s campaign. 

Last year, Yass spent roughly $6.1 million on an anti-abortion candidate running for the Pennsylvania Supreme Court and millions more on anti-abortion candidates in Kentucky and Virginia.