HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP, KYW Newsradio) — The back-and-forth over proposed constitutional amendments regarding abortion rights and voting in Pennsylvania is headed to the state Supreme Court.
Pennsylvania Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf sued the state Legislature on Thursday to stop Republican-backed proposed constitutional amendments. One of the proposed amendments says that the state does not guarantee the right to abortion or public funding of abortions.
Republicans in the state Senate started the amendment process in the final hours of the budget process earlier this month.
GOP backers of the proposal say the amendment would simply preserve the status quo, and is in response to a lawsuit that they argue would require taxpayers to fund abortions.
But the lawsuit, filed in the state Supreme Court, claims the state Legislature's efforts to ban abortion in the state are unconstitutional and are in violation of an individual's privacy protections. Wolf wants the high court to throw out the amendments, declaring that they are not constitutionally valid.
The lawmakers are attempting to circumnavigate Wolf’s power to veto legislation he does not support.
Wolf claims that bundling the abortion amendment together with four others in a bill that passed the General Assembly earlier this month as budget sessions were wrapping up runs afoul of a constitutional rule against passing legislation that addresses multiple, unrelated topics.
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Wolf in a statement said the abortion-related amendment was part of GOP lawmakers' effort to “dismantle access to abortion and implement a radical agenda.” He said he will take every step to ensure that abortion remains legal, safe, and accessible in Pennsylvania.
The other four amendments would require voter ID, have gubernatorial candidates choose their own running mates, empower lawmakers to cancel regulations without facing a governor’s veto and establish election audits. Although the House and Senate voted for them as a package, mostly along partisan lines, voters would consider the questions individually.
The lawsuit describes the bill as “a mishmash of changes to at least four different articles of the Constitution," a set of measures Wolf claims “abridges personal liberties and freedoms and alters our current balance of power and constitutional checks and balances.”
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Wolf's lawsuit says the proposed amendments “are exactly the sort of complex changes that require careful deliberation at a constitutional convention prior to a fair and accurate presentation to the electorate.”
House Republican spokesman Jason Gottesman said Wolf's lawsuit lacked merit and was an attempt to “subvert the power of the people's voice in the General Assembly.”
Constitutional amendments need to pass both chambers in two consecutive two-year legislative sessions before going to voters for the final say.
The package passed its first round of approvals on July 8, 28-22 in the Senate and 107-92 in the House. After the new session starts in January, lawmakers could vote to put the constitutional amendment referendums before voters as early as the spring primary on May 16, 2023.
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A sixth question, which would allow civil lawsuits over child sexual abuse that would otherwise be too old to pursue, was voted separately and also awaits the second round of legislative votes starting next year.
Wolf said he took action Thursday because of a requirement that the Department of State advertise the language of proposed amendments after the first round of votes by the House and Senate and at least three months before a fall election. That advertising period starts Tuesday, he said, and is why he also included as a plaintiff his own acting secretary of state, Leigh Chapman.
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Republicans have increasingly turned to the constitutional amendment process to accomplish policy objectives that Wolf opposes. In 2021, they successfully got two amendments on the ballot to limit Wolf's authority during a pandemic emergency, and voters narrowly approved them.
The questions can be teed up for consideration during the spring primary, when Republican voters are more likely to turn out than Democrats. Amendments can pass with a simple majority — not the supermajorities required to override a veto — and the amendment process makes them much harder to reverse.
Wolf has made his stance clear on abortion rights throughout his gubernatorial term. He previously vetoed anti-abortion legislation proposed by the General Assembly, as well as proposals to establish elections audits and require voter ID.
Winston Harris contributed to this report.
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You can read Gov. Wolf's full statement below.
As part of Governor Tom Wolf’s ongoing commitment to protect a woman’s right to make her own health care decisions, today he filed a lawsuit against the Republican-led General Assembly for their unconstitutional attempt to ban abortion in Pennsylvania.
“The Republican-led General Assembly continues to take extraordinary steps to dismantle access to abortion and implement a radical agenda. Frustrated that their legislation may face my veto pen again, they instead loaded multiple unrelated constitutional amendments into a joint resolution and rammed the bill through during the budget process,” Gov. Wolf said. “As long as I remain governor, I will take every step to ensure that abortion remains legal, safe and accessible in Pennsylvania."
In the court filing to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, Governor Wolf asserted that the Pennsylvania Constitution explicitly recognizes a personal right to privacy, with such a right including the right to terminate a pregnancy. The proposed amendment on abortion under the joint resolution violates this right. Further, the governor asserted that the multiple, unrelated amendments packaged as a single joint resolution are unconstitutional because the General Assembly pushed the proposed amendments forward without allowing each proposed amendment to be voted upon separately.
The governor has expedited this request to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court because the Pennsylvania Department of State is constitutionally required to publicly advertise the amendments beginning Aug. 2. For this reason, Pennsylvania's Acting Secretary of State Leigh M. Chapman is also named in the governor's court filing.
Joint resolutions are constitutional amendments that do not require the governor’s signature and cannot be vetoed by the governor. They must be approved during two consecutive legislative sessions before being placed on the ballot. The proposed amendments packaged in the joint resolution must be approved by the legislature again in 2023-24 legislative session. On the current course, it’s possible that the amendments could be on the ballot in 2023.
"Make no mistake, this is a coordinated effort to take away reproductive rights. Further, Republicans moved Senate Bill 106 with the goal of creating a path toward an abortion ban without public debate and under the cover of night,” Gov. Wolf said. “Today, in the light of day, I am fulfilling my commitment to do everything I can to protect these rights.”
Since taking office in 2015, Governor Wolf has vetoed three different anti-abortion bills introduced by members of the General Assembly and vowed to veto the rest.
On June 24, 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court reversed nearly 50 years of settled precedent and overturned two of its landmark decisions in ruling that the U.S. Constitution does not confer a right to abortion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Org. However, abortion services are available and unharmed in Pennsylvania by this Supreme Court action for now.
In May, Governor Wolf joined 16 governors across the nation to call for immediate passage of the federal Women’s Health Protection Act.
This month, the governor applauded President Joe Biden for taking executive action to protect reproductive health.
Also this month, the governor signed an Executive Order protecting out-of-state residents who may enter Pennsylvania to access reproductive health care services in the commonwealth.