Anti-Abortion Vote Scheduled TODAY February 7 in PA Senate. CALL NOW!

The Pennsylvania Senate has scheduled debate and first vote on SB 3 for 3 pm TODAY!  This is the bill that will deny access to abortion coverage in insurance in the new health care exchanges. 

Please take a moment and call or email you State Senator. Contact information for each Senator can be found here. Just fill in the information. When the second page pops up, click on the name of your Senator. This will take you to his/her contact page where you can find phone numbers and either an email address or a link to the Senator's web mail form.


As we stated on Saturday in our previous blog on February 5:

The passage of SB 3 will continue to marginalize abortion service from the regulation and oversight of the medical and insurance industry. Pennsylvania law should support the provision of safe, legal abortion and not stigmatize the procedure and push it into the hands of dangerous practitioners who threaten and endanger women’s lives and health.

This legislation is unnecessary.  On January 25th, the Senate Banking and Insurance Committee rushed this bill out of committee (the very first vote of any Senate committee this session).  We said then:

This bill dramatically changes the status quo. If it becomes law, it 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. Banning abortion coverage in the state health insurance exchange would leave women worse off than they were before health care reform began.

And now the PA Senate is rushing this to the floor as the VERY FIRST VOTE on an issue-based bill this session. And it will be the ONLY bill up for debate. I verified this by going to the PA Senate Roll Call history page. The Senate has only held five voting days this session. And what did they vote on prior to today?

• January 4, 2011 - QUORUM VOTE YEA=PRESENT
• January 18, 2011 - RESOLUTION (Resolution providing for the adoption of Financial Operating Rules of the Senate)
• January 19, 2011 - APPROVAL OF THE PREVIOUS DAYS JOURNAL JANUARY 4, 2011
• January 24, 2011 - RECESS RESOLUTION
• January 25, 2011 - APPROVAL OF THE PREVIOUS DAYS JOURNAL FOR JANUARY 18, 2011

We reiterate. WHAT ARE YOU THINKING!?

This vote is a pandering, political statement. Senators should not be focusing on social, hot-button issues. As Senator Vance and Williams clearly stated, this vote is premature. Pennsylvania voters are not interested in reopening the debate around abortion. Our lawmakers should focus on improving our health care system and stop using women’s health as a divisive issue.

CALL NOW. Thank you!