It’s a new session underway in the PA House and Senate in Harrisburg and pro-life lawmakers are laying the groundwork for some important measures to preserve the dignity of life. The Pennsylvania Catholic Conference will be right there with them as they look to navigate the lengthy process of getting a bill passed.
Three of the measures may sound very familiar to you because they made substantive progress of varying degrees over the past session or sessions. But when a new session starts, so does the process. We’ll start with the one that made it the furthest in the most recent legislative session:
- The Down Syndrome Protection Act – sponsorship memos to revive this bill have been circulated by Rep. Kate Klunk (R-York) and Sen. Scott Martin (R-Lancaster). Both of these lawmakers did an excellent job in pushing the measure through the House and Senate in the last session. The bill would prohibit an abortion based solely on the diagnosis of possible Down syndrome. It was vetoed by Governor Wolf.
- Heartbeat Bill – sponsorship memos have been circulated by Rep. Stephanie Borowicz (R-Centre, Clinton) and Sen. Doug Mastriano (R-Adams, Cumberland, Franklin, York) on a bill that they introduced last year with the PCC standing right beside them in the Capitol Media Center. The bill would prohibit an abortion once a heartbeat is detected in the fetus.
- The Unborn Child Dignity Act – sponsored by Rep. Frank Ryan (R-Lebanon), will allow parents to make the final decision on the handling of the remains of their child even if it is lost prior to birth. Ryan’s bill was passed on a bipartisan vote in the House but it never made it to a floor vote in the Senate.
The Pennsylvania Catholic Conference puts a high priority on measures that protect the sanctity of human life from conception to natural death. We monitor hundreds of bills across a variety of issues that we feel are central to the Catholic faith.
