CNA Staff, Jan 30, 2024 / 17:05 pm
The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania on Monday revived a 2019 lawsuit brought by a number of abortion providers in the state that challenges, on discrimination grounds, a longtime state law barring public funding for most abortions.
In a 219-page ruling Jan. 29, the state high court reversed an earlier dismissal of the lawsuit, sending it back to the Commonwealth Court, one of the state’s two appellate courts.
At issue is Pennsylvania’s Abortion Control Act, in place since the 1980s, which restricts the use of state and federal funds for abortion except “when necessary to avert the death of the mother” or in cases of rape or incest.
The abortion providers bringing the lawsuit had argued, among other things, that Pennsylvania’s policies regarding the use of federal funds unfairly singled out women, since “there is no medical condition specific to men for which medical assistance denies coverage.”