PA Senate Pandering to the Right

Why was this your very first vote of the session?


The PA Senate Banking and Insurance Committee voted out SB 3 this afternoon. This bill bans abortion coverage in the health care exchanges. This bill dramatically changes the status quo and will leave women worse off than before federal health care reform took place. Currently between 80 and 87% of all health insurance plans cover abortions. This guts women's reproductive health care.

Many of these legislators have said that they believe that government shouldn't restrict access to you health care choices. Yet this is exactly what their vote has and will do.

This is the VERY FIRST VOTE ANY of these members have cast this session. It was also the ONLY vote taken during this committee meeting. The final vote was 12 (all 9 R's and 3 D's) for and 2 against (both D's).

What are you thinking!? This vote is a pandering, political statement. Senators should not be focusing on this. It is premature. You are taking a position contrary to your constituency and this vote will not be forgotten. Issues of economics are much more serious and should be the focus.

I think Senator Anthony Williams (D) put it best when he explained his no vote. He said, "There are larger issues right now. I would hate to have this as my first vote [of the new session]. This [vote] isn’t on a substantive issue. We should be holding off on these [types of] bills."