Pa. House panel set to vote on hugely restrictive abortion ban
Good Monday Morning, Fellow Seekers.
Apparently unsatisfied with alienating a key part of the electorate on Election Day last month, a Pennsylvania House panel is moving to help Republicans keep their streak alive in 2018.
With only a handful of voting days left on lawmakers' 2017 calendar, the House Health Committee is set to vote sometime today on one legislation that would ban abortion after the 20th week of pregnancy, down from the current 24 weeks, and prohibit a common, second-trimester procedure known as dilation and evacuation.
Critics have questioned the timing of the vote, which comes as notable legislative Republicans, including state House Speaker Mike Turzai, R-Allegheny, and Sen. Scott Wagner (both abortion foes) fire up their gubernatorial campaigns for 2018.
The Senate voted along party lines in February to approve the legislation sponsored by Sen Michele Brooks, R-Crawford. The bill does not provide exceptions in cases of rape, incest or fetal abnormalities.
If approved, it would be one of the most restrictive such bans in the country. Gov. Tom Wolf has vowed to veto the bill if it reaches his desk.
And GOP House leaders are leaving nothing to chance when it comes to Monday's anticipated vote.
In April, Republicans who control the committee reassigned one, guaranteed "no" vote, Rep. Frank Farry, R-Bucks, and replaced him with the more senior, and more conservative, Rep. Jim Cox, R-Berks.
The move was unusual because Farry, a long-serving committee member whose district includes a major hospital, had just been reappointed to the committee in January for the 2017 legislative session.
Republican leaders also approached another lawmaker, Rep. Alex Charlton, R-Delaware, who was on the bubble on Brooks' bill, about stepping down from the panel. He declined.
http://www.pennlive.com/capitol-notebook/2017/12/happy_year_of_the_woman_-_pa_h.html
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