Senate Bill 3, the bill that would ban abortions after 20 weeks without exemptions for the health of the mother or because of birth defects, passed the state House last night on a far from party line vote.
Six Republicans and 11 Democrats voted against their party line on the bill for final passage.
Republican state Reps. Alex Charlton (R-Delaware), Sheryl Delozier (R-Camp Hill), Frank Farry (R-Bucks), Warren Kampf (R-Chester), Duane Milne (R-Chester), Todd Stephens and (R-Montgomery) all voted against the bill.
All the Republicans to vote against the bill, except for Delozier who was the only female Republican to vote against the bill, came from the southeastern part of the state. That region of the state has been trending Democratic in recent elections, especially in 2017’s local elections, where Democrats made historic gains in county seats in Delaware, Chester, and Bucks counties.
Democratic state Reps. Frank Burns (D-Cambria), Mike Driscoll (D-Philadelphia), Neal Goodman (D-Schuylkill), Michael Hanna (D-Centre), Sid Kavulich (D-Lackawanna), Anita Kulik (D-Allegheny), Mark Longietti (D-Mercer), Joe Markosek (D-Allegheny), Joe Petrarca (D-Allegheny), Chris Sainato (D-Adams), and Pam Snyder (D-Greene) all voted in favor of the bill.
Burns, Hanna, Kulik, Longietti, Markosek, Petrarca, and Snyder all come from the western part of the state, that have been trending more conservative, especially with the election of President Trump in 2016.
SB3 will be vetoed by Governor Tom Wolf, who has spoken out strongly against its passage, saying it is an “assault on the doctor-patient relationship by politicians without medical or health expertise.”
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11 Responses
Luther Strange didn’t win.
Access to birth control and women’s health care is a major reducer of abortions. But Republicans don’t want to do that so we take the “realistic” abstinence approach and wonder why teen and otherwise unwanted pregnancies skyrocket. This puts significant pressure on Commonwealth resources in the form of public assistance. The “anti-abortion”/”anti-birth control and women’s health care” stance actually exasperates the problem and leads to more abortions.
The bill needs to be Veto-Proof, but the Devil works to keep pro-abortion people in play!
It’s sad we dismember the unborn in the Coutry, but the Bill is righteous!
Maybe a bunch of “fake Catholics” will see the light and vote to act in favor of the truly innocent unborn, who need to be protected!
More abortions= less freeloading mouths for the government to feed. How can you R’s not get that???
Abortion is the greatest form of welfare reform. R’s should be offering cash incentives for them! FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY!
The real question is how did they vote last year on same thing? If they changed, then it’s politics and they’re worried about 2018. If they didn’t it means they meant it.
All of the Dems who voted for it last year voted for it last year. In fact, the number of pro-SB 3 Democrats fell from 25 last year to 11 this year.
Sainato isn’t from Adams
If any pro-choice Dems want to primary challenge the 11 assh*les who voted for this terrible bill, please contact me for access to my voter database to help them get on the ballot. The party won’t sell their VAN/VoteBuilder system to challengers, no matter how badly the incumbents vote.
Most of these Dems appear to be in districts with fairly safe Dem registration advantages, especially a blue wave year. Pro-choice Doug Jones beat Roy Moore in Alabama, so we don’t need these anti-choice Dems making these votes.
Moore last because of scandal. Any Republican would have beaten Jones if they weren’t caught up in allegations of diddling children. Don’t use it as a benchmark of anything other than people don’t like creepsters.
No thanks Dave.
Petrarca is from Westmoreland.