Pennsylvania – REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS ALERTS

30 Jul

Pa.’s attorney general is defending the state’s Medicaid abortion ban in court. Is he required to?

RileyLatest NewsAbortion Rights, Healthcare, Pennsylvania, Reproductive rights

When Dave Sunday became Pennsylvania’s attorney general in 2025, a complicated situation awaited him. Two weeks after the Republican’s January swearing-in, judges on Commonwealth Court assembled in Pittsburgh to hear oral arguments about the constitutionality of the state’s ban on Medicaid-funded abortions.

11 Mar

NAACP Files Amicus Brief to Support Access to Affordable Contraception

DoryLatest NewsContraception, GOP, Healthcare, NAACP, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Reproductive rights, Trump Administration, United States

The NAACP signed on to an amicus brief in Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, et al. v. President United States of America, et al. In the case, Pennsylvania and New Jersey are challenging regulations enacted during the first Trump administration that expanded the religious and moral exemptions to the Affordable Care Act's birth control benefit. The exemptions allow employers or universities to impose religious or moral beliefs on their employees and students – blocking them from accessing affordable contraception.

08 Mar

AU (American’s United) & allies urge court to protect birth control access from broad religious exemptions

JordanLatest NewsContraception, GOP, Healthcare, Pennsylvania, Reproductive rights, Trump Administration, United States

Americans United for Separation of Church and State, joined by the National Women’s Law Center and over 60 reproductive rights, civil rights, religious and other social justice organizations, urged the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to affirm that overly broad religious exemptions shouldn’t be used to undermine nationwide access to birth control.

25 Nov

Hope for women’s hormone health

PhoenixLatest NewsHealthcare, menopause, Pennsylvania, Reproductive rights, United States

A medical office in York County is offering hope for patients suffering from menopause.

26 Oct

Abortion access a key focus as conservatives aim to flip Pa. Supreme Court

MollyLatest NewsAbortion Access, Abortion News, Democratic majority, Pennsylvania, Supreme Court, Supreme Court Flip, United States, Voting

"In April, the fight over control of the Wisconsin Supreme Court was seen as so critical nationally that Elon Musk, a top ally of President Donald Trump earlier this year, ran onto a rally stage in Green Bay donning a cheesehead hat as Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Free Bird” pumped up the crowd, before he pushed to flip the court’s liberal majority. The appearance — and $20 million in donations — failed to convince voters. Now, it’s Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court and the 5-2 Democratic majority in an unprecedented firestorm of state and national politics...."

21 Oct

Why abortion is front and center in Democrats’ messaging on Pa. judicial retention

PhoenixLatest NewsElection, Healthcare, Judges, Pennsylvania, Reproductive rights

The issue has been top of mind for Democratic voters since Roe v. Wade fell, say advocates hoping to keep a Democratic majority on the Pa. Supreme Court.

13 Jul

World IVF Day is July 25, 2025. Update from the PA House of Representatives

AlanLatest NewsIVF, Pennsylvania, Reproductive rights

Globally, approximately 1 in 6 people experience infertility in their lifetime. Many couples around the world rely on assisted reproductive technology, such as in vitro fertilization (IVF), to make their dreams of starting a family a reality.

07 Jun

Pennsylvania senators push for abortion shield law to create haven from states with bans

MollyLatest News, United StatesAbortion Haven, Abortion travel, Lawmakers, Pennsylvania, Senators, Shield Law, United States

"A pair of Pennsylvania lawmakers are looking to pass a so-called shield law that would offer legal protections for out-of-state women seeking abortions in the commonwealth and for the doctors who perform the procedure. “While we cannot prevent other states from criminalizing abortion, we can protect individuals seeking and providing reproductive health services in the Commonwealth,” Sens. Amanda Cappelletti, of Montgomery County, and Judith Schwank, of Berks County, wrote in a memo June 5. “We can take a stance against the use of our criminal justice system from assisting in those prosecutions.”..."

01 Jun

Union organizer fired at Pittsburgh’s East Liberty reproductive health center

RandyLatest NewsAbortion Rights, Pennsylvania, Reproductive rights, Unions

The movement to unionize workers at one of the region’s few abortion care providers took a dark turn last week when managers at Allegheny Reproductive Health Center in East Liberty fired one of the employees involved in the organizing effort and issued written reprimands to several others.

29 Apr

Spooked by Alabama ‘embryonic personhood’ ruling, Pa. lawmakers aim to expand and protect IVF access

RandyLatest NewsHealthcare, IVF, Pennsylvania, Reproductive rights, United States

Several Pennsylvania lawmakers who have personally faced challenges conceiving children are pushing to require health insurers to cover fertility services, and to also enshrine the right to the care in state law.

11 Nov

Pa. abortion providers, legal experts look at what’s ahead for reproductive rights under a second Trump term

DoryLatest News2025, Pennsylvania, Reproductive rights, Trump, United States

Health providers and legal experts say changes to federal funding, insurance coverage and federal law during Trump’s first presidency could foretell what’s to come.

29 Sep

Women’s health advocates fear restricted abortion access in PA

DoryLatest NewsEctopic Pregnancy, Pennsylvania, Reproductive rights

Susie Blum Connors never considered the surgery that saved her life three times an abortion. That's because it wasn't. The 74-year-old Scranton woman had three life-threatening ectopic pregnancies treated with emergency procedures in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

22 Jun

Now an abortion rights advocate, woman raped by stepfather as a child will campaign with first lady

TobysFundLatest News, United States2024 Election, Abortion Ban, Abortion Care, Abortion Pills, Abortion Rights, Abortion Rights Advocacy, Healthcare, Jill Biden, legislation, mifepristone, Pennsylvania, Roe v Wade, Sexual Assault, United States

A 22-year-old woman who became an abortion rights advocate after she was raped by her stepfather as a child will campaign with first lady Jill Biden in Pennsylvania this weekend as part of a 2024 election push around the anniversary of the fall of Roe v. Wade.

29 Jan

Pennsylvania high court revives a case challenging Medicaid limits for abortions

MollyLatest News, United StatesAbortion Care, Abortion Coverage, Abortion Rights, Healthcare, Medicaid, Pennsylvania, Planned Parenthood, Reproductive healthcare, United States

"Pennsylvania's Supreme Court said Monday that a lower court must hear a challenge to the constitutionality of a decades-old state law that limits the use of Medicaid dollars to cover the cost of abortions, a major victory for Planned Parenthood and the abortion clinic operators who sued. The decision also elicited hope that the state Supreme Court may one day find a right to abortion in Pennsylvania's constitution after the U.S. Supreme Court ended nearly a half-century of federal abortion protections by overturning Roe v. Wade...."

01 Sep

After nearly 30 years, Pennsylvania will end state funding for anti-abortion counseling centers

BarbraUnited StatesAbortion Rights, Anti-Abortion Centers, Funding, legislation, Pennsylvania, United States

For nearly 30 years, Democratic and Republican lawmakers in Pennsylvania have approved millions of taxpayer dollars for an anti-abortion program. Now the state’s new governor plans to end the contract as the organization that distributes those funds and other groups like it gain attention since the overturning of Roe v. Wade.