PA Rep. Dawn Keefer (R-York & Cumberland Cos.) is going to be very active in the pro-life movement in Harrisburg in the coming weeks and months. She will be joining State Rep. Paul Schemel (R-Franklin Co.) in introducing the 20-week rule.
“Right now you can have an abortion up to 24 weeks in Pennsylvania,” Keefer explained. “This bill would bring that down to 20 weeks. While we wouldn’t like abortion to be legal, it would at least put some more parameters on it.”
A similar bill passed the House and Senate last year but it died on the Governor’s desk with a veto.
Keefer said the abortion issue is personal for her. She had her third and final child when she was 36 and had to undergo several tests during the pregnancy because of her age. One of those tests called for a 3-D sonogram.
“I had a sonogram of my son at 18 weeks. I keep it in my desk drawer. It is fully developed—you can see features. He’s looking at you. I just find it shocking that you can still abort that child.”
She also noted that they pushed the testing for Down Syndrome.
“The irony is the older you are, the more likely you are to have a false positive.”
Keefer recounted a discussion she had with a pro-choice woman at the Capitol. The woman first framed abortion as a religious issue, then as a woman’s rights issue.
“This is a human rights issue,” she told the woman. “Who are more vulnerable than this population? The woman then said ‘what about women’s rights?’ I said ‘okay fine. What about all those women in utero who are getting slaughtered?”
In addition to being pro-life, Keefer also served on the Common Sense Caucus. She has gotten an eye-opening look at the way money is stashed in special funds in state government. She doesn’t like what she sees. And it’s not that easy to see.
“I just want to make sure there’s accountability there,” Keefer said. “I want transparency and accountability and that’s my issue with these funds that sit outside the General Fund budget. There just doesn’t seem to be the transparency there that there is with the General Fund budget—and make no mistake there is not a ton of transparency with the General Fund budget.”
“There is little to no transparency with these special funds. All you see is money going in and money going out, but you can’t see from where or to what it’s going out to and match everything up in detail.”
