Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf plans to veto a bill to expand medical care in his state because it includes a restriction on the killing of unborn babies in abortions.
KYW News Radio reports Wolf, a pro-abortion Democrat with close ties to Planned Parenthood, announced his decision right after the state Senate approved the pro-life legislation Tuesday.
State Senate Bill 857 passed 29-21. It protects lives by expanding telemedicine health services in the Commonwealth, allowing certain medical care to be provided online via webcam rather than in person. The bill also restricts the expansion of drug-induced abortions by prohibiting telemedicine for high-risk drugs on the Food and Drug Administration Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy list.
Wolf spokesman Lyndsay Kensinger told the Patriot News that the governor will not support the bill because of “unnecessarily restrictive amendments” such as the abortion restriction.
But, during the floor debate Tuesday, state Sen. Michelle Brooks, R-Mercer County, defended the restriction as necessary to protect people’s lives, according to the report.
“[This abortion drug] has been determined by the federal government that it can be very, very dangerous and it has very, very serious side effects at times,” Brooks said referring to FDA list. “When that drug is used, it should be used by a person who has seen a doctor and been examined by a doctor. Why would we want to remove that safety net for any of these drugs?”
Later, she added, “I found it very, very disappointing that the governor, on philosophical differences, would put the health and well being of rural residents at risk.”
Telemed abortions, or webcam abortions, involve women taking abortion-inducing drugs without ever seeing a doctor in person. Instead, they “meet” remotely over a webcam before the drugs are dispensed from a remote-control drawer or by a staff member.
These are dangerous for mothers as well as their unborn babies. In-person exams are important for dating the pregnancy; the abortion drugs do not work well later in pregnancy and potentially could lead to more complications. Exams also can detect ectopic pregnancies, which can be deadly on their own but especially so if the woman takes the abortion drugs.
Currently, 18 states ban telemed abortions. Pennsylvania would become the 19th if Wolf allows the bill to become law.
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Here’s more from the local news:
Senate Majority Leader Jake Corman, R-Centre County, said he was hopeful the governor would look past his support for abortion rights to allow this bill to become law with or without his signature. He said it is critical to provide help that will ensure the state’s hospitals and health care systems, which have been hard hit financially by the COVID-19 pandemic, get reimbursed for telemedicine services they provide.
… Corman said the bill does not alter a woman’s reproductive rights in Pennsylvania nor does it change the access to the medication. What it does do in the middle of a pandemic is not only give rural areas access to specialists and health care providers but allows anyone access to telemedicine to avoid going into doctor’s offices and risking exposure to the coronavirus.
But Wolf is extremely close to the abortion chain Planned Parenthood, having once been a volunteer. Right now, Planned Parenthood is working to expand the killing of unborn babies in abortions in Pennsylvania and other states. Just days ago, it announced plans to provide telemed services, including abortions, throughout the U.S. by the end of April.
State pro-life leaders urged Wolf to listen to Pennsylvanians, not the pro-abortion lobby, and expand true health care throughout the state.
Maria Gallagher, legislative director of the Pennsylvania Pro-Life Federation, praised House and Senate lawmakers for including important safeguards in the bill.
“This bill protects the health and safety of women, thanks to an important amendment inserted by the Pennsylvania House of Representatives,” Gallagher told LifeNews. “That amendment bans the telemedicine distribution of a number of dangerous drugs, including the abortion pill RU-486. The Pennsylvania Senate is to be applauded for ensuring that that key safeguard remains in the bill. We urge the governor to sign this bill, especially for the well-being of women throughout the Commonwealth.”
Michael Geer, president of the Pennsylvania Family Institute, also praised House and Senate lawmakers for taking action to expand real medical care “without sacrificing safety or the highest standards of care.”
For decades, abortion activists have claimed an abortion should be a decision between a woman and her doctor. But now they are trying to take doctors out of the equation – and putting more lives at risk.
The abortion drug mifepristone is not safe for the mother or her unborn child. It has been linked to at least 24 women’s deaths and 4,000 serious complications. Risks of mifepristone and misoprostol, the most common abortion drugs taken together to abort and then expel an unborn baby from the womb, include excessive bleeding, severe abdominal pain, infection, hemorrhage and death.
A 2009 study “Immediate Complications After Medical Compared With Surgical Termination of Pregnancy,” in Obstetrics and Gynecology found a complication rate of approximately 20% for the abortion drugs compared to 5.6% for surgical abortions. Hemorrhages and incomplete abortions were among the most common complications.
Randall O’Bannon, Ph.D., director of education and research for the National Right to Life Committee, recently explained other problems with webcam abortions: “It would … mean a woman undergoing a painful, bloody, potentially dangerous abortion by herself at a time when emergency medical help is stretched thin and perhaps unavailable. Women undergoing chemical abortions have bled to death or died from infections. Others have died when undetected ectopic pregnancies ruptured.”
ACTION ALERT: Contact Gov. Tom Wolf.
