To: The Pennsylvania State Senate and Governor Tom Wolf
PA Senate, Vote AGAINST House Bill No. 321
Pennsylvania Senators,
I urge you to vote against House Bill No. 321, an amendment to the Abortion Control Act to make abortion based on the prenatal diagnosis of Down Syndrome a felony in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
Although its sponsors and supporters will attempt to convince you otherwise, House Bill No. 321 does nothing to protect persons with disabilities. Instead, this bill is an unconstitutional attack on women's reproductive healthcare rights.
Women have the absolute legal right to decide whether to carry a pregnancy to term. If a woman who becomes pregnant decides she is unable or unwilling to give birth to and/or raise a child - whether or not that decision is made on the very reasonable basis of a complex and life-altering disability such as Down Syndrome - it is that woman's decision to make, and hers alone.
Pennsylvania women's right to choose and access safe abortion services is in your hands, Senators. Do the right thing for women. Vote against House Bill No. 321.
Why is this important?
Anti-choice politicians in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives have passed House Bill No. 321 to amend the Abortion Control Act by adding the prenatal diagnosis of Down Syndrome to its definition of unlawful abortions and making abortion based on the prenatal diagnosis of Down Syndrome a felony. The bill will now go to the Pennsylvania Senate for a vote.
This bill, passed in the House of Representatives on May 14, 2019, is nothing more than an attempt to control women's bodies and challenge Roe v. Wade. In a political climate that's becoming increasingly hostile toward women and at a time in our nation when legislators in other states have openly expressed their desire to take away women's reproductive rights, House Bill No. 321 is an appallingly opportunistic attack on women's health.
Furthermore, although its sponsors and supporters will attempt to convince you otherwise, this bill is not an attempt to protect individuals with disabilities. House Bill No. 321 contains no provisions to protect persons born with Down Syndrome, and, unsurprisingly, none of the bill's sponsors or supporters have introduced legislation to protect individuals living with Down Syndrome.
House Bill No. 321 can only be interpreted as a means to further restrict women's legal right to make their own reproductive healthcare decisions.
Women have the absolute right to decide whether to carry a pregnancy to term. Women's decisions whether or not to abort are entirely their own to make. If a woman who becomes pregnant decides she is unable or unwilling to give birth to and/or raise a child - whether or not that decision is made on the very reasonable basis of a complex and life-altering disability such as Down Syndrome - it is that woman's decision to make, and hers alone.
House Bill No. 321 is an unconstitutional ban on women's right to choose. The real intention of the bill is clearly to bring Pennsylvania one step closer to banning abortion. We cannot allow that to happen.