Pennsylvania’s 20-week abortion ban got shut down in a veto Monday, disappointing many pro-life advocates who were hopeful that the ban would meet success.
Democratic Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf vetoed Senate Bill 3, which sought to extend the state’s current abortion laws preventing a fetus older than 24 weeks from being aborted to 20 weeks of fetal development, according to US News.
The law would have criminalized the procedure, punishing anyone facilitating or performing abortions after 20 weeks except in cases where the mother’s life was in danger. The measure also would have prohibited abortion clinicians from performing dilation and evacuation — or “dismemberment” — abortions.
Wolf made good on his original promise to veto the bill. “This bill is an attack on women, and it should never have reached my desk,” Wolf tweeted last week. “I will veto it, because all Pennsylvania women deserve to make their own health care decisions.” The Republican-controlled House recently passed the bill in a 121-70 vote after it passed the state senate earlier this year, the Hill reports.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton recently told The Daily Caller News Foundation in an exclusive interview that second trimester dismemberment abortions should be banned.
“We aren’t trying to ban abortions, women can still get abortions, we’re just trying to stop babies who can feel pain from being ripped apart,” Paxton told TheDCNF. “Science has shown time and time again that these babies feel pain and it is our utmost duty to do everything we can to protect the lives of these unborn children.”
The Pennsylvania Medical Society opposed the bill, US News reports.
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