This page provides an overview to issues AAUW Pennsylvania is currently attending to.
PENNSYLVANIA REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS
On January 29, 2024 the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania issued a landmark opinion in Allegheny Reproductive Health Center v. Pennsylvania Department of Human Services, a case first filed by the Women’s Law Project in 2019. You may have heard this case referred to as “the Medicaid ban challenge.”
In the ruling, the Court declared abortion restrictions reflect sex-based discrimination and are therefore presumptively unconstitutional under the state constitution’s equality provisions (the Pennsylvania ERA).
This is one case with many wins. The Court:
- affirmed that abortion providers have the right to represent the interest of their patients in court
- reversed a lower court’s ruling and rejected a self-selected group of anti-abortion lawmakers’ bid to “intervene,” or join as full parties in the case
- reversed an error-laden 1985 precedent that unjustly slammed the court’s doors shut to challenging Pennsylvania’s Medicaid ban on abortion coverage, and other abortion restrictions, under our state’s Equal Rights Amendment
- Explicitly acknowledged that abortion restrictions are an extension and perpetuation of historic sex- and gender-based oppression
This victory makes it clear that Pennsylvanians have been unjustly denied the full promise of sex- and gender-equality offered by our state constitution for the last 39 years.
The ruling corrects that decades-long injustice by affirming that state abortion restrictions, like the Medicaid ban, must be evaluated within a legal framework that acknowledges that abortion restrictions can be a form of sex-based discrimination under our state ERA, which prohibits sex-based discrimination.
Two of the five Justices who ruled in the case explicitly affirmed that our state constitution “secures the fundamental right to reproductive autonomy, which includes a right to decide whether to have an abortion or to carry a pregnancy to term.” A third Justice called that opinion “incredibly insightful,” but decided that resolving that question was not required by this case. The Court’s growing recognition of this fundamental right is an extremely encouraging development.
Legal experts are calling this ruling the biggest rebuke to Dobbs out of the states yet. If you remember, the Dobbs opinion absurdly said abortion restrictions did not discriminate against women. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court responded, yes, yes they do.
Sue Frietsche, Co-Executive Director, Women’s Law Project
Read the ruling: https://www.pacourts.us/news-and-statistics/cases-of-public-interest/allegheny-reproductive-health-center-v-pa-department-of-human-services—26-map-2021
For further clarification of the Dobbs decision, watch an AAUW PA webinar on it with Sue Frietsche and Sarah Horvath, Read the summary and review the recording at https://aauw-pa.aauw.net/aauw-aauw-pa-webinars/.
AAUW Statement — WE WON’T BACK DOWN
Read the AAUW press statement from Gloria L. Blackwell, AAUW Chief Executive Officer.
Reproductive freedom has been an AAUW policy principle since 1977. Learn more at Where We Stand: Reproductive Rights.
In Pennsylvania, abortion is legal up to 24 weeks after a person’s last menstrual period. A patient seeking an abortion must receive state-mandated counseling that includes information designed to discourage them from having an abortion, and then wait 24 hours before the procedure is provided.
K- 12 Public Education Funding Lawsuit
Every child in Pennsylvania has the right to a public education that prepares them for college and career. But our legislative leaders in Harrisburg have created a school funding system where the students who need the most get the least, because of where they live. It’s wrong. It’s unconstitutional. And now, school districts and parents have taken the state to court.
The law suit was filed in 2014. The in-person trial in Commonwealth Court started on November 12, 2021 and ended March 10, 2022 after fourteen weeks of opening arguments, witness testimony, thousands of pages of exhibits, and closing arguments. Then briefs were written and submitted to the court presenting legal rationale. July 26 was the last day of the trial –Judge Renée Cohn Jubelirer heard post-trial oral arguments and now must render her decision.
Learn about the issues and William Penn School District et al. v. Pennsylvania Department of Education et al lawsuit at Fund Our Schools or, for a more “legal” perspective, go to the attorneys site, Public Law Center.
AAUW Pennsylvania public policy priorities support a quality system of public education and advocates for (one of four points) fail and adequately funded system of public education. Many AAUW Pennsylvania branches and members have attended rallies, wrote postcards, studied the issues, and followed this historic trial.
Petitioners (the school districts and parents) and Respondents (Legislators and Executive branch) returned to court on July 26, 2022 for the post-trial oral arguments. During the post-trial oral arguments, we heard a day-long clash of opinions as to what kind of education students in Pennsylvania public schools have a right to receive under the Pennsylvania State Constitution. An absolute must-read, is In Court, a Clash of Views on What Education System PA’s Constitution Requires.
What kind of education do students in Pennsylvania public schools have a right to receive under the Pennsylvania State Constitution? Attorneys from both sides addressed this pivotal question during oral arguments. Petitioners attorneys from the Public Interest Law Center believe they will prove, as they did at trial, that the Pennsylvania State Constitution demands high quality public education in every community, so that all students have the support they need to prepare for careers, further education, and civic participation. Our current two-tiered school funding system, divided by local wealth, fails to meet that standard.
Stay current and sign up for update at https://www.fundourschoolspa.org/.
Additional sources for information on this issue and trial are:
PA Schools Work
Public Interest Law Center
Education Voters PA
Level Up PA