Abortion is a hot issue

Salon senior politics writer Amanda Marcotte led a panel titled “Will abortion decide this election?”

Local speakers Lizbeth Rodriguez of the Philadelphia Women’s Center, Drexel University law professor David Cohen, and Rutgers Law professor Kimberly Mutcherson participated in the discussion.

Marcott asked how the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization which overturned Roe v. Wade has affected abortion access in the state.

“In Pennsylvania, abortion is legal,” Rodriguez said. “However, legality has never meant accessibility for folks. For a lot of marginalized communities, these barriers, bad laws and restrictions on providers have been affecting us for the past 50 years.”

Cohen said states like Pennsylvania have a responsibility to expand access.

“We’ve seen states around the country where abortion remains legal, where pro-choice legislators and governors have actually started actually doing what we’ve wanted them to do for decades – which is get rid of restrictions that have remained on the books even in liberal states and fund abortion,” he said.

Panelists said they are seeing some women come to Pennsylvania from other states seeking abortion support. But Rodriguez says the state is “still very restricted.”

“We have the Pennsylvania Abortion Control Act with mandatory waiting periods, restrictions on young folks, and a number of restrictions on providers that truly make it difficult for folks in red states to come and seek care here,” she said.

Mutcherson told Marcotte that New Jersey has gone much farther in terms of expanding access.

“There are lots of jokes about New Jersey, but if you are a person who cares about reproductive healthcare and abortion in particular, New Jersey is at the top of the list,” she said. “We have a great reproductive freedom act that was passed even before Dobbs came down. We do not have the kinds of restrictions that a lot of states have, including gestational limits. You can use Medicaid to pay for abortion in New Jersey. So low income women have access to abortion in ways that are not true in a lot of other states.”

All eyes on PA

Biden is expected to heavily focus on Pennsylvania this election cycle, given the importance of a win for either candidate but also his affinity for his birth state.

“Biden loves Pennsylvania,” writer and author Molly Jong-Fast said, noting that a Biden staff member told her “Biden is always in a good mood when we go to Harrisburg.”

She added that she doesn’t believe in polls – which are giving an edge to Donald Trump in Pennsylvania – and that Biden had advantages the former president doesn’t.

Biden is “a politician because he’s good at connecting with people,” she said.

Saturday’s event was co-sponsored by Project on Government Oversight. Other speakers included University of Pennsylvania law professor Claire Finkelstein, Drexel Klinke School of Law professor David Cohen, The Lincoln Project co-founder Rick Wilson, Salon politics writer Amanda Marcotte, Democracy Forward CEO Skye Perryman, The New Republic staff writer Walter Shapiro, and POGO Action policy counsel Joe Spielberger.