PA Senate Votes Yes on Mensch Amendment and Attacks Women's Health Care

The Pennsylvania Senate just debated and passed the Mensch Amendment to SB 732.  Right after the vote, the Senate went into recess until 1 PM on Monday, June 13.  We expect the vote on the full bill early next week; it will then be sent to the House.

This amended bill, if and when it becomes law (the Governor has said he will sign it) will shut down the 22 free-standing abortion clinics throughout PA.  This amendment requires all free-standing abortion clinics to meet the standards for the Ambulatory Surgical Centers in addition (and in some cases, in contradiction) to the Abortion Control Act, the Ambulatory Gynaecological Surgery Facility Regulations, and the MCARE Act which they already have to follow.  You can review these regulations below (Thanks to the Women's Law Project for gathering this information):

How Abortions Are Currently Regulated in PA




The votes on the Mensch Amendment were as follows.  Aye votes are votes that will shut down the clinics and lead to more back-alley abortions.  No votes were votes in support of women's health.  As with SB 3, Senator Earll (R) was not present and did not vote.

AYE (Anti-Choice Votes)

Y ALLOWAY (R)

Y ARGALL (R)

Y BAKER (R)

Y BLAKE (D)

Y BROWNE (R)

Y BRUBAKER (R)

Y BROWNE (R)

Y CORMAN (R) 

Y EICHELBERGER (R)

Y ERICKSON (R)

Y FOLMER (R)

Y GORDNER (R)

Y GREENLEAF (R)

Y KASUNIC (D)

Y MENSCH (R)

Y ORIE (R)

Y PICCOLA (R)

Y PILEGGI (R)

Y PIPPY (R)

Y RAFFERTY (R)

Y ROBBINS (R)

Y SCARNATI (R)

Y SMUCKER (R)

Y SOLOBAY (D)

Y TOMLINSON

Y VOGEL (R)

Y WARD (R)

Y WAUGH (R)

Y WHITE DONALD (R)

Y WOZNIAK (D)

Y YAW (R)

Y YUDICHAK (D)

NO ( Pro-Choice Votes

N BOSCOLA (D)

N BREWSTER (D)

N COSTA (D)

N DINNIMAN (D)

N FARNESE (D)

N FERLO (D)

N FONTANA (D)

N HUGHES (D)

N KITCHEN (D)

N LEACH (D)

N MCILHINNEY (R)

N SCHWANK (D)

N STACK (D)

N TARTAGLIONE (D)

N VANCE (R)

N WASHINGTON (D)

N WHITE MARY JO (R)

N WILLIAMS (D)

 

 

This is the wrong response to what allegedly happened at Gosnell’s clinic in Philadelphia. Instead of preventing another Gosnell “house of horrors,” this bill will hurt women.

• It will not improve patient safety;
• It will force safe providers to close;
• It will increase the cost of an abortion by as much as $1,000;
• It will force women to seek care in other states or from marginal or illegal practitioners;
• It will create two overlapping sets of regulations that are in conflict with each other and in violation of the Abortion Control Act; and
• It will have the harshest impact on the poor and rural women of Pennsylvania.

It’s now time for you to call, write, and/or email your Pennsylvania State Senator.  Contact information for your legislator can be found here.  Tell your legislator that this bill is wrong, will put more women in danger, and will likely shut down the safe providers.  

VOTE NO on SB 732.

Update on Senate Bills 3 and 732 and the Mensch Amendment to SB 732

SB 3

The Pennsylvania Senate passed SB 3 this afternoon at about 4 pm by a vote of 37-12. This is the bill that denies insurance coverage for abortions in the new health care exchanges. This means that any person that uses the exchange for their health insurance can not purchase this coverage with their own money.It now goes to the PA House of Representatives. You can review our previous blogs on this bill here, here, here, and here. 

The 12 Senators who supported women's access to reproductive health care were:

N COSTA

N DINNIMAN

N FARNESE

N FERLO

N FONTANA

N HUGHES

N KITCHEN

N LEACH

N SCHWANK

N TARTAGLIONE

N WASHINGTON

N WILLIAMS

 

Please contact these Senators and thank them for their support.

 

The 37 Senators who voted for this egregious bill were:

Y ALLOWAY

Y ARGALL

Y BAKER

Y BLAKE

Y BOSCOLA

Y BREWSTER

Y BROWNE

Y BRUBAKER

Y CORMAN

Y EICHELBERGER

Y ERICKSON

Y FOLMER

Y GORDNER

Y GREENLEAF

Y KASUNIC

Y MCILHINNEY

Y MENSCH

Y ORIE

Y PICCOLA

Y PILEGGI

Y PIPPY

Y RAFFERTY

Y ROBBINS

Y SCARNATI

Y SMUCKER

Y SOLOBAY

Y STACK

Y TOMLINSON

Y VANCE

Y VOGEL

Y WARD

Y WAUGH

Y WHITE DONALD

Y WHITE MARY JO

Y WOZNIAK

Y YAW

Y YUDICHAK

 

Please contact these Senators to register your displeasure at their vote.

 

Senator Earll was not present and did not vote.  Ask her why she was unavailable for this vote. 

 

 

Senate Bill 732 and the Mensch Amendment
 
Meanwhile, the Senate decided to hold off on debate on both SB 732 and Senator Mensch's amendment. It is likely to return tomorrow or Thursday for debate and vote.  So please keep the calls coming. You still have time to call your Senator and tell him/her to vote NO on both the amendment and the overall bill. For talking points see our previous blog blogs here and here.  Mensch's amendment is based on House Bill 574 which requires free-standing abortion clinics to meet the standards for the Ambulatory Surgical Centers in addition (and in some cases, in contradiction) to the Abortion Control Act, the Ambulatory Gynecolgoical Surgery Facility Regulations, and the MCARE Act.  You should therefore check out our earlier blog on HB 574.

Call Your Senator NOW - Vote NO on the Mensch Amendment

Please call your Senator RIGHT NOW.  The Pennsylvania Senate is debating and voting TODAY on Senator Mensch's amendment to SB 732.

SB 732 that would would license abortion providers, create a consumer complaint system, and provide for unannounced Department of Health inspections prior to licensing and in response to any reported serious events. We have major concerns about the harassment potential SB 732 presents. It may be made even worse if Senator Mensch gets his way and  amends the bill to require abortion providers upgrade to ambulatory surgical facility standards; this amendment, just like HB 574, if passed, will likely cause most of our 20 free-standing clinics to close, curtail the services they provide, and/or increase the cost of a procedure beyond many women's reach.

You can find your Senator's contact information at http://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/legis/home/findyourlegislator/


Please call immediately and tell your Senator the following:

MESSAGE 1:

VOTE NO on Mensch Amendment TO SB 732.

MESSAGE 2:

VOTE No on SB 732 due to its potential to harass clinics and invade women's right to privacy.

Action Alert: Two Anti-Choice Bills Up for Vote on Monday May 23 in PA Senate

We have just been advised that the Pennsylvania Senate is scheduled to vote on two abortion-related measures on MONDAY AFTERNOON, MAY 23rd.
The first bill is SB 3 which would ban abortion coverage in any health care plan in the new health care exchanges created with the new Federal health care law. The second bill is SB 732. It would license abortion providers, create a consumer complaint system, and provide for unannounced Department of Health inspections prior to licensing and in response to any reported serious events.
Please contact your state Senator and tell him/her to vote NO on both SB 3 and SB 732. The message for each bill is slightly different. You can find your Senator's contact information at http://bit.ly/FindPaLeg. See below for details.

Messages to Give to Your Senator on SB 3

SB 3: This bill would ban abortion coverage in the insurance exchange to be set up by 2014 as part of health care reform, even if the insured pays for a separate policy with her own money. You can review our previous blogs on this bill here, here, and here. There are two sets of messages to tell your Senator:

MESSAGE 1:

SUPPORT the following amendments to Senate Bill 3

1. Complying with Federal Health Care Law Amendment:

Insurance coverage for abortion may be purchased through the health insurance exchange using private funds pursuant to the funding and segregation rules set forth in Section 1303 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

2. Insurance Choice Amendment:

An insurance plan shall neither be required to provide nor prohibited from providing insurance coverage for abortion services.

3. Health Exception Amendment:

In cases in which the woman became pregnant through an act of rape or incest, or where, in the good faith judgment of the physician, an abortion is medically necessary for reasons other than rape or incest.

Message 2:

VOTE NO on SB 3; Women need insurance coverage of abortions. Senate Bill 3 would:

• Prohibit any insurance company that contracts with the health care exchange from providing coverage for abortion services

• Prohibit this coverage except in cases of death or rape or incest that has been personally reported

• Prohibit a woman from using her own private money to purchase abortion coverage, though this separation is mandated by the Nelson amendment to the federal health care reform law – the Affordable Care Act.

Messages to Give to Your Senator on SB 732

SB 732: This bill would license abortion providers, create a consumer complaint system, and provide for unannounced Department of Health inspections prior to licensing and in response to any reported serious events. We have major concerns about the harassment potential SB 732 presents. It may be made even worse if Senator Mensch gets his way and  amends the bill to require abortion providers upgrade to ambulatory surgical facility standards; this amendment, just like HB 574, if passed, will likely cause most of our 20 free-standing clinics to close, curtail the services they provide, and/or increase the cost of a procedure beyond many women's reach.

MESSAGE 1:

VOTE NO on Mensch Amendment TO SB 732.

MESSAGE 2:

VOTE No on SB 732 due to its potential to harass clinics and invade women's right to privacy.

And finally, here is the overall message for both SB 3 and SB 732

Pennsylvania law should support the provision of safe, legal abortion and not stigmatize the procedure and push it into the hands of illegal, dangerous practitioners who threaten and endanger women’s lives and health. The situation in the Gosnell clinic happened because the PA Department of Health was not enforcing existing regulations. If we want to avoid more “clinics of horror” like the one in Philadelphia, then we need to urge our senators not to support these unreasonable proposals that will in turn hurt women rather than help them.

Allow women to continue their full reproductive health care coverage (NO on SB 3) and oppose onerous additional regulations that could send women to unsafe and unregulated or out-of-state providers (NO on SB 732).

Update on SB 1 - the School Voucher Bill

I just received an email from PSEA (the PA State Education Association) - one of the lead organizations of the Pennsylvanians Opposed to School Vouchers coalition - regarding what happened with the school voucher bill today in the Pennsylvania Senate.  Here's the text of that email from Beth Zampogna, Assistant Director of Government Relations:

Update on SB 1 -

Thanks to all of you for your EXCELLENT work and outreach to Senators opposing Senate Bill 1. Collectively we have made significant progress [emphasis added]. As of this morning the Senate was scheduled to vote on SB 1 and we did not have the votes to defeat it. Throughout the day, based on all of your hard work, we got a LOT closer on the vote count and raised significant concerns about the bill, particularly among the Senate Republican caucus. Even after Governor Corbett himself appeared in the Senate Republican caucus pushing for support for vouchers, the decision by the caucus was to postpone the vote tonight and possibly tomorrow on SB 1. In fact, we have heard that they may not vote the bill at the earliest until the week of April 25 [emphasis added].

This is real progress but there’s a lot more work to be done. We must take advantage of this momentum - PLEASE CONTACT YOUR MEMBERS AND ADVOCATES and urge them to keep up the pressure. As of today, the following are the Senators we believe need to receive the most contact urging opposition to Senate Bill 1:


• Rich Alloway (R-Franklin, Adams)
• Mike Brubaker (R-Lancaster)
• Jane Earll (R-Erie)
• Bob Mensch (R-Montgomery)
• Mike Stack (D-Philadelphia)
• LeAnna Washington (D-Montgomery)
• Mary Jo White (R-Venango)
• Gene Yaw (R-Lycoming)

More updates and information to follow tomorrow as we continue to collect intelligence from across the street but for now just want to say thanks and congratulations on this accomplishment. Let’s keep up the hard work!

So please continue to call / email your Senator and tell him/her to vote NO on SB 1.  My earlier blog today gives more details including links to talking points and information on how to find out who you Senator is and how to contact him/her. 

Thanks for all you do!