On Monday, June 6, 2011, the Pa. Senate voted to defeat the “Leach Amendment (LA) to S.B. 3 by a vote of 33-16. S.B. 3 seeks to prevent abortion subsidies in the Obamacare Pa. exchange, scheduled to take effect in 2014. The LA would have gutted the effectiveness of S.B. 3. Thus, the pro-life vote on the LA was no.
On Tuesday, June 7, 2011, the Pa. Senate passed S.B. 3 by a vote of 37-12. The pro-life vote on S.B. was yes. I am attaching a roll call report on both votes. Please note that any Senator who voted for the Leach Amendment and thus for the final passage of S.B. 3 is attempting to “be on both sides” of the abortion funding in Obamacare issue.
On Wednesday, June 8, 2011, the Pa. Senate, by a 31-18 vote, passed the “Mensch Amendment” (MA) to S.B. 732, which is abortion facility regulation legislation. The MA significantly toughens S.B. 732 by requiring any abortion facility to meet Ambulatory Surgical Facilities (ASF) standards if abortions are committed after nine weeks gestation at that abortion chamber. Prior to the passage of the MA, pro-abortion leader, Sen. Patricia Vance, offered the “Vance Amendment” (VA) to dilute the effectiveness of the MA by only requiring abortion chambers to meet ASF standards if they committed abortions after 14 weeks gestation. The pro-life vote on the VA was no. The Pa. Senate defeated the VA by a 29-20 vote. Challenges Remain to the Final Passage of S.B. 732 The Pa. Senate has scheduled a vote on the final passage of S.B. 732 for Monday, June 13, 2011. The pro-life vote on final passage of S.B. 732 with the MA is yes. Some pro-abortion Senators are likely to offer additional weakening amendments. The pro-life vote on all these amendment is no. It is very unlikely that any of these additional weakening amendments will pass. However…, a serious concern does exist about an amendment that Sen. Patrick Browne (who voted pro-life on all four votes) is considering to offer. His amendment would require “a study” to be done on the impact that S.B. 732 would have on abortion facilities in Pa. between the time of final passage and its scheduled implementation 180 days later. This is a harmful amendment. The Pa. abortion industry would largely determine the outcome of this “study” and its results would very likely aid the certain court challenge to be brought by Pa.’s abortion industry to any new abortion facility regulation legislation. Please contact Sen. Patrick Browne (at 717-787-1349); pbrowne@pasen.gov and urge him not to offer his “study amendment” to S.B. 732. This proposed legislation next goes to the Pa. House Health Committee, which has a pro-life Chairman (Rep. Matt Baker) and a pro-life majority. The representatives and leaders in the Pa. pro-life movement all agree that S.B. 3 is good legislation and should be passed in its current form. Therefore, we should urge Rep. Baker (717-772-5371; mbaker@pahousegop.com) to pass this legislation from this committee as soon as possible. We should then urge pro-life House Majority Leader, Rep. Mike Turzai (717-772-9943; mturzai@pahousegop.com) to schedule a vote on S.B. 3 in the full House as soon as possible so S.B. 3 will be sent to Gov. Corbett (who has pledged to sign it) prior to the Pa. House recessing for “Summer Break,” which is currently scheduled for June 29, 2011.
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