Update on Pro-Life Efforts in Pennsylvania State Government

From  Michael J. McMonagle, President

Pro-Life Coalition of Pennsylvania

March 4, 2013 Meeting With Lt. Gov. Jim Cawley and Policy Secretary Jen Branstetter

At their invitation, leaders from the pro-life organizations in Pa. met with these state government officials, as well as Lt. Gov. (LG) Cawley's Chief of Staff(COS), Guy Ciarrocchi, Esq. and Gov. Corbett's Deputy COS, Luke Bernstein.  Our assiduous efforts to prepare a clear, united and cogent agenda, I believe, proved highly worthwhile.  I am attaching a sheet that summarizes this agenda by presenting the requests that we made in each area.

The positive part of the meeting was LG Cawley's strong engagement and promise of a response to our requests at the meeting. The disappointing part of the meeting was the absence of Michael Wolf, the Acting Secretary of the Department of Health (DOH), or any other official from DOH.

Gov. Corbett's DOH, while a significant improvement from Govs. Ridge and Rendell's DOH, only has a mixed record.  If this meeting does not result in improvement from DOH, I expect that leaders in the Pa. pro-life movement and I will be issuing a strong call for contact with Gov. Corbett regarding his DOH's deficiencies in enforcing state laws and regulations against the Pa. abortion industry, as well as DOH's now lengthy lack of response to requests from pro-life citizens and organizations.

Passing Obamacare Abortion Opt-Out Legislation in the Pa. General Assembly

I believe that significant progress was made on this issue on March 20, 2013,when other leaders in the Pa. pro-life movement (Maria Gallagher, Tom Shaheen, Randy Wenger, Esq. and Jack O'Brien) and I met with the Senate President and the House Speaker.  I believe that we broke the ongoing stalemate over "Should the House or the Senate Bill pass?" by receiving an affirmative response from both Sen. Scarnati and Speaker Smith to our request to promptly pass S.B. 3.  So, our next step is to urge Sen. Don White, the Chairman of the Pa. Senate Banking and Insurance Committee, to pass S.B. 3in this Committee as soon as possible when the Pa. Senate returns on April 8, 2013.

Promoting Action on Other Pro-Life Legislative Proposals

We cannot and should not consider the passage of S.B. 3 to constitute a successful2013-2014 legislative term.  This legislation only prevents some of the deadly harms of Obamacare in our state.  We should be aggressively pursuing a positive agenda that will significantly reduce the number of abortions, abortion facilities and/or abortionists in our state.

The January 2011 Philadelphia Grand Jury's Report provided an urgent and important legislative agenda item for the 2011-2012 term. However, no clear consensus has yet emerged as to our next legislative priority after abortion opt-out legislation.

Some other leaders in the Pa. pro-life movement and I are having some success in achieving a consensus that our next priority should be "The Priorities Bill."  This bill would effectively de-fund Planned Parenthood (PP) and other abortion committers by assigning such committers the lowest priority for the receipt of state funds.

We and some pro-life legislators are taking some actions to prepare and introduce this legislation.  Nevertheless, the most likely way to effect the passage of this legislation is for Gov. Corbett to include this language in his 2014 budget.