All but one state lawmakers from Berks vote to restrict abortion

By Steve Reinbrecht

Eight of the nine state representatives who represent Berks County voted Tuesday, June 21, to further restrict abortions in Pennsylvania. 

That’s interesting, because most Americans support legal abortion, and Berks County has more registered Democrats than Republicans, and Democrats tend to support reproductive freedom.

Of the Berks representatives, only Mark Rozzi, a Democrat, voted against HB 1948, which the House approved 132 to 65. 

If passed by the Senate and signed by Gov. Tom Wolf, it would prohibit abortions for women who have been pregnant for more than 20 weeks. Now the cut-off is 24 weeks.

It also would restrict the use of “dilation and evacuation” abortions, in which the doctor uses tools to remove the fetus, sometimes tearing it apart. 

Women who value their ability to make tough decisions without government interference shouldn’t worry – the bill has little chance. Reporters at the news organization in Lancaster, the next city over, asked Gov. Tom Wolf, who said he’d veto it for sure.

The grandstanding move is part of a national trend by state lawmakers to restrict abortion.

I see it as the American Talibanization – dark God-Squad efforts to gain and retain power by using fear and ignorance to enforce medieval religious-based laws, mostly oppressing women.

"There's no more hiding it, guys," said Rep. Matt Bradford, a Montgomery County Democrat, who opposed the bill and was quoted on PennLive. "You're either on the side of women, or you're on the side of those who want to project their views on every woman in Pennsylvania ... Supreme Court precedent be damned. My morality. My faith. Not yours."

Rozzi was not available for comment.

Rep. Kathy Rapp, a Republican from Warren County, sponsored the bill.

“Now, more than 40 years after Roe v. Wade, passage of this legislation [by the House] finally acknowledges what we’ve known from science and countless true stories, that the unborn child senses pain by 20 weeks gestation,” Rapp’s website says. "It recognizes that if advances in medicine are allowing thousands of micro-preemies — at 20 to 24 weeks — to survive and thrive, that our laws must change to accurately reflect the sanctity of all human life.”

I’m glad the Reading Eagle ran a wire story about this – I wouldn’t have known otherwise. But to be even more useful, it could ask our local elected officials about their votes on major issues.