HARRISBURG – The Independence Law Center filed a friend-of-the-court brief on behalf of the PA Family Institute in Tom Wolf v. General Assembly, arguing for the right of citizens to have a say in the issue of abortion. The Law Center’s Janice Martino-Gottshall says the governor claims we can not amend our Constitution because we have a fundamental right to abortion that can not be changed by the people. But PA’s Constitution doesn’t even mention abortion, and no PA court has ever found abortion to be a right. Gov. Wolf filed a petition asking the PA Supreme Court to allow him to bypass the usual legal process and kill the proposed constitutional amendment passed by the General Assembly in Senate Bill 106. There were several proposed amendments in the bill, including one concerning abortion, sometimes referred to as the Life Amendment. That amendment, which must still be considered in the next legislative session before going to a vote of the people, would preserve the ability of the legislature to set abortion policy, rather than the courts. Without the Life Amendment, the door is open to a radical push by the abortion industry to force taxpayers to pay for elective abortions until the day of birth.
