Abortion rights advocates prepare for Trump’s second presidency | The Pennsylvania Independent
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House Democratic lawmakers, Planned Parenthood members and other abortion rights advocates gathered at the Pennsylvania State Capitol in Harrisburg on June 24, 2024 to mark the second anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. (Anna Gustafson)

The people and organizations fighting to protect the right to reproductive health care are rushing to prepare for the second presidency of Donald Trump, a Republican-led U.S. Congress, and a conservative supermajority on the U.S. Supreme Court.

Whether that preparation comes in the form of community organizing or lawsuits challenging anti-abortion policies, organizations and advocates told the Pennsylvania Independent that they were ready to face whatever comes next.

Susan J. Frietsche, the executive director of the Women’s Law Project, told the Pennsylvania Independent in an email that the organization was “as prepared as possible to protect reproductive freedom in the Commonwealth.”

“We launched a multi-phase legal plan to build state legal and constitutional power during the first Trump presidency when it was clear we could no longer rely on a federal right to abortion,” Frietsche said. 

Several reproductive health organizations sued the state in 2021 to overturn its ban on Medicaid coverage of abortion care. The plaintiffs claim in Allegheny Reproductive Health Center v. Department of Human Services that the ban violates the state constitution’s equal rights amendment.

While the courts haven’t issued their final ruling in the case, the state Supreme Court granted abortion advocates a small win in January 2024 by overturning its previous interpretation of the Equal Rights Amendment in a 1985 ruling that upheld the coverage ban.

Arguments for the next phase in the case will begin on Feb. 5 in Pittsburgh, according to an email from Planned Parenthood of Pennsylvania.

“Now we’re back in court fighting for our state constitutional rights, which includes reproductive freedom,” Frietsche said.

Signe Espinoza, the executive director of Planned Parenthood PA Advocates, told the Pennsylvania Independent that the organization will not be caught by surprise by anti-abortion efforts.

“We knew what was coming during the campaign, and we’ve been preparing for this scenario,” Espinoza said via email. “Even if we don’t see an explicit abortion ban, the threats that we are anticipating are direct attacks on our rights and access to the full range of sexual and reproductive health care.”

In an interview with the Pennsylvania Independent a week after the presidential election, Rachel Rebouché, the Kean Family Dean of Temple University Beasley School of Law, worried that Trump could reverse protections implemented by President Joe Biden’s administration and even instruct his attorney general to prosecute people who seek abortions.

Abortion is currently legal in Pennsylvania up to 23 weeks and six days of pregnancy and is likely to remain so under the leadership of Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat whose term doesn’t end for another two years.

In June, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously in a case challenging the approval of the abortion drug mifepristone, the first-step oral medication used to end a pregnancy in combination with the drug misoprostol. The court ruled that the plaintiffs did not have legal standing, allowing the medication to continue to be dispensed.

This came after a preliminary ruling in a separate lawsuit by Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas that suspended the FDA’s 23-year-old approval of mifepristone along with subsequent rules governing the use of the drug. The U.S. Department of Justice appealed Kacsmaryk’s decision to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit. 

Nancy Northup, the president and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights, said in a statement sent to the Pennsylvania Independent that the organization was “ready for this next fight” in Trump’s second term.

“We will vigorously oppose any and all attempts to roll back progress. We will scrutinize every action of the White House and federal agencies, amass the factual and legal record to counter agency actions, and work to stop harmful policies from going into effect,” Northup said. “If they do, we will take them to court. We will vehemently fight any effort to pass a national abortion ban, to stop the provision of medication abortion by mail, to block women from crossing state lines to get care, to dismantle UN [United Nations] protections for reproductive rights and progress made at the national level in countries around the world, and more.”

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