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Two Democrats, Frank Burns of Cambria County and Anita Kulik of Allegheny County did vote against HB1957. Sadly, two Bucks County Republicans, Joe Hogan and Kathleen Tomlinson, voted for this radical legislation.
The bill now moves on for consideration by the state Senate sometime after it reconvenes this January. The state Senate has a 28-22 Republican majority, but by all accounts, a vote on HB1957 could be razor thin. Erie's very own state Sen. Dan Laughlin could be the one who casts the deciding vote. Sen. Laughlin is something of a wild card when it comes to abortion. But, when he originally ran for the state Senate, he campaigned on a promise not to oppose the current limitations on abortion. Most of those limitations are contained in the longstanding Pennsylvania Abortion Control Act, which would be completely vaporized by the constitutional amendment that HB1957 seeks to impose.
URGENT ACTION REQUEST Please contact state Senator Dan Laughlin and urge him to vote NO on HB1957, the constitutional amendment bill.
Send message via web form
District Office
1314 Griswold Plaza, Suite 101
Erie, PA 16501
Phone: (814) 453-2515
Text: (814) 900-4527
Capitol Office
20 East Wing
Senate Box 203049
Harrisburg, PA 17120-3049
Phone: (717) 787-8927
Text: (814) 900-4527
If HB1957 gains traction and is approved by the state Senate, it will be well on its way to turning Pennsylvania into another abortion stronghold like New York or California. However, the measure will not be submitted to the voters for their final decision until it has been passed by the state House and state Senate for a second time, in the next legislative session, which starts in January 2027.
With this in mind, the best way to ensure an end to the insanity is to elect strong pro-life majorities to both chambers on the Pennsylvania General Assembly in 2026.
A Closer Look at HB1957
HB1957 is very short and takes only a few minutes to read.
Here are a few points to bear in mind when you read it.
The verbiage laid out in all caps was added as an amendment to the bill at the last minute. It is a cynical attempt to mislead you about the full effects of the bill in regard to late-term, including third-trimester, abortion. It was perhaps added to encourage the two Republicans to defect, by muddying the waters ever so slightly. There are several things to notice here.
The bill allows the Commonwealth to "regulate" abortion after viability, including in the third-trimester, when the baby can be safely delivered unless it is, first, deliberately killed in the womb. However, the ability to do this regulating is blocked if someone declares that the killing would benefit the physical or mental well-being ("health") of the mother.
And what does it actually mean, to "regulate"? Does it mean prohibit? No one can say. It might only mean that the abortion has to carried out between the hours of 8 a.m. and 8 p.m.
Who gets to declare the abortion is "indicated"? An unbiased physician? The abortionist? Not even the abortionist, but rather, any "health care professional." This might mean an RN, an LPN, a patient care technition, a psychologist, or a behavioral health counselor.
As if all this were not enough, the bill does not even tell us what "viability" means. That definition is also left up to the opinion of that mysterious "health care professional." All that is certain is that whether or not the baby can survive after birth is not the issue. Instead, the issue is how much of the normal medical help that is afforded to preemies the baby targeted for abortion killing might require if delivered alive.
We often hear people insist that there is no such thing as abortion up to birth and that late-term abortions only take place under extremely rare circumstances when needed to save the life of the mother.
However, even a quick Google search will reveal abortion facilities that advertise abortion to 34 weeks or more. Some specialize exclusively in late-term abortion.
An abortion facility in Boulder, Colorado is known to have done abortions at 38 and 39 weeks. Studies have shown that from 2/3 to 4/5 of the late-term abortions at this facility were carried out on perfectly healthy babies. And the most common problem in the other cases was Down syndrome.
The idea that late-term abortion is needed for emergency treatment is easy to refute. Late-term abortion is a long process that takes two or three days. In an emergency situation, the baby can be delivered alive in a matter of minutes by cesarean section.
Finally, parents should understand that the right to kill by abortion supersedes your right to be involved in your teenage daughter's life: "Every individual has the fundamental right to exercise personal reproductive liberty... without discrimination on the basis of... age.... The Commonwealth may not deny, burden, infringe upon or abridge this right..."
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