Pennsylvania’s multi-million dollar abortion industry is attempting to remove your voice from the debate by sandblasting current laws and allow Planned Parenthood and others to profit from unrestricted abortions that are “free” — thanks to your tax dollars. The industry is using the court system to attempt to fundamentally alter our state’s founding documents, and unless “WE, the people” pass a constitutional amendment, this travesty may become reality.

The Inquirer Editorial Board recently ran an op-ed praising this lawsuit — brought by virtually every entity that profits from performing abortions — that seeks to force the use of your tax dollars to pay for abortions through Medicaid. Conspicuously missing from the Inquirer op-ed was the broad range of implications that such a ruling in the abortion industry’s favor would place upon Pennsylvanians, while including several outlandishly false claims that must be addressed.

In this lawsuit, Pennsylvania’s abortion industry states that its desire is to find a “fundamental right” to abortion in our state constitution. The PA Supreme Court could very well side with the abortion industry and manufacture a right to abortion in Pennsylvania’s constitution. This has happened in states such as Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, West Virginia, and Tennessee. In response, several of those states are working to pass or have passed similar constitutional amendments. 

READ MORE — Christine Flowers: Pro-life doesn’t just mean “pro-birth”

What happens if the abortion industry gets the outcome it wants by circumventing our legislative process? Taxpayers would be forced to fund abortion on-demand, through all nine months of pregnancy. All of Pennsylvania’s current pro-life protections and regulations on the abortion industry would be removed. The legislature would be barred from making any future pro-life laws in the future, regardless of what Pennsylvanians want. 

The Inquirer Editorial Board made several assumptions that are simply unfounded. The editorial claims there is a “prohibitive nature to the cost of abortion” and that black Pennsylvanians don’t have the same access to abortion as white Pennsylvanians.

Access to abortion is not the problem. Just look at who is getting abortions in our state. Black women account for over 44 percent of all abortions in Pennsylvania despite being 12 percent of the state’s population.

This was a driving factor in the amicus brief filed by the Independence Law Center in this lawsuit, now before the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, on behalf of leaders in the black community who are standing up against exploitation by Big Abortion, including Dr. Alveda King, niece of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Star Parker, founder and president of CUREpolicy.org, and Ryan Bomberger, co-founder of The Radiance Foundation. “Abortion — as weaponized against the Black population — comes from a history of eugenics and pervasive racism, spawning a legacy that harms the Black community,” stated the brief.

While claiming a lack of access, the abortion industry is bragging about its recent growth. Planned Parenthood has “fully integrated” its abortions by video services through telemedicine, despite putting more women at risk by forgoing in-person consultation and ultrasounds. Abortion facilities continued to operate throughout the pandemic despite all other elective surgical procedures being shut down for a significant time.

While healthcare exists to preserve and save life, many Pennsylvanians — and our state laws — recognize that abortion takes life away.

The big business of abortion is making millions of dollars in profits. In 2020, estimates show the abortion industry made $15–17 million from abortion procedures alone. Take Planned Parenthood, the state’s largest abortion business. Not only is it  profiting from abortion, but over 40 percent of its revenue — more than $14 million — came from contributions and government grants.

One of Planned Parenthood’s recent newsletters in Pennsylvania bragged about the “huge surge” of people supporting its work. These abortion facilities, along with outside organizations, raise significant amounts of money to cover abortion costs. The abortion industry advertises this: “You may be eligible for financial assistance.”

Taxpayers should not be forced against their beliefs to fund a procedure as inhumane and deadly as abortion. While healthcare exists to preserve and save life, many Pennsylvanians — and our state laws — recognize that abortion takes life away. It’s why the Pennsylvania Abortion Control Act states that the public policy of this Commonwealth is to “encourage childbirth over abortion.”

That’s why a constitutional amendment is the necessary response to this imminent threat. Pennsylvania State Sen. Judy Ward (R-Blair) has introduced the Life Amendment, Senate Bill 956, to protect Pennsylvanians from seeing their tax dollars used to pay for the taking of a human life through abortion. It will also protect current law on abortion and permit updates to those protections moving forward, such as the law passed to mandate inspections on abortion facilities.

Note, the Life Amendment must pass both the PA Senate and House by simple majorities in two successive terms of the legislature before it would go to a vote of the people at the ballot box. It does not need a governor’s signature so the Life Amendment cannot be vetoed.

The abortion industry may desire more tax dollars in their coffers and unrestricted abortion-on-demand, but that’s not what Pennsylvanians want or deserve.

Alexis Sneller is the Policy and Communications Officer for the PA Family Institute.