Press Conference: PA Democrats Slam Trump and MAGA Republicans for Overturning Roe v. Wade, Call to Stop Trump’s Abortion Ban On 51st Anniversary of Roe 

Pittsburgh, PA – On Monday, January 22, the 51st anniversary of the Supreme Court issuing the landmark Roe v. Wade decision, U.S. Congresswoman Summer Lee, Allegheny County Executive Sara Innamorato, and PA State Rep. Jessica Benham held a press conference with the PA Democratic Party slamming Donald Trump and MAGA Republicans for ripping away women’s access to health care by overturning Roe v. Wade and paving the way for a national abortion ban. 

The electeds were joined by Kelsey Leigh, an abortion storyteller and advocate from Pittsburgh to make clear that stakes for the health and freedoms of Pennsylvanians in 2024 have never been higher.

Chairman of the Pennsylvania Democratic Party, Senator Sharif Street stated, ‘Fifty years ago, on January 22, 1973, the United States Supreme Court issued a landmark 7–2 decision in Roe v. Wade, protecting a woman’s constitutional right to make her own health choices, a victory for the right to privacy, equality, and body autonomy. Following the Supreme Court overturning of Roe, we now live in a world where my daughters and granddaughters will grow up with less rights than my 75 yr-old mother. We’ve returned to a time when a woman’s body, her health choices, are subject to every will but her own and set a dangerous precedent of the Court infringing on fundamental rights instead of protecting them. Today’s reminder ignites democrats to stand together to protect women’s reproductive rights. 

The speakers highlighted the unprecedented grassroots energy of the abortion rights movement in Pennsylvania, which mobilized PA women to make abortion the defining issue and elect abortion rights champions up and down the ballot in the 2022 mid-terms and again in the 2023 PA Supreme Court race.

Read highlights from the event below:

“We know that there’s so much at stake, particularly in Western Pennsylvania, as we think about how we are the leading voices for reproductive justice because of our life experiences where we have some of the worst black maternal and infant mortality rates in our country in our country in the developed world. We know that this fight isn’t just about abortion care, which is so important, but it’s an expansive understanding of what’s at stake for the least of these for the most vulnerable populations–who we know are already harmed and stand to be even more harmed now, because it’s unconscionable to force black women and birthing folks to give birth when we can’t even guarantee that we can keep them alive in the process” said Congresswoman Summer Lee (PA-12). “We are organizing to stop Trump and his nationwide abortion ban, and to stop his crony, David McCormack, or whoever else [the Pennsylvania GOP] bring to us, from making it to the United States Senate. The stakes in 2024 and beyond are clear and they’re as high as they’ve ever been.”

“Given provider shortages and lack of cultural competency for people in rural areas, folks with disabilities, folks without access to financial resources, LGBTQ+ folks, black birthing people and more have always had less access not just to abortion care, but to health care generally” said State Rep. Jessica Benham (HD-36). “There was never justice here. And what we do know is that the overturning of Roe v Wade exacerbated existing inequities and denied access to even more people. We have an opportunity now to recommit to working together with each other to ensure folks can access the full spectrum of reproductive healthcare.”

“I’m proud to stand here as your Allegheny County Executive–the first woman to hold this position. But outside of that, I’m a woman in my 30s. It’s me, it’s my sister, it’s my friends who are going through this process of deciding if and when and how they want to have children… sometimes those are deeply exciting processes, and sometimes they’re devastating. But above all, they are private, personal decisions. Right now, women, they need our support. They do not need judgment from elected officials. As County Executive, I trust women. I respect their rights and will keep Allegheny County a safe place to seek abortion care.”said Allegheny County Executive Sara Innamorato. “But I know I don’t do this work alone. Abortion has been on the ballot every single election since Trump and his far right wing Supreme Court overturned Roe. We need leaders at every level committed to protecting abortion access now more than ever, and that means reelecting a Democratic majority in the State House and sending some reinforcements with Representative Jess Banham and flipping the state senate. It means reelecting my sister rep Congresswoman Summer Lee. It means sending Bob Casey back to the US Senate. And it means reelecting Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris to the White House.”

“In the six months following the Dobbs decision, I worked at Allegheny Reproductive. This was when Ohio and West Virginia lost abortion access overnight, and confusion ran wild. My colleagues and I answered the phone and scheduled abortion appointments. We each spoke with dozens of people daily. They were suffering, scared and desperate. They were traveling hundreds of miles and worried about being arrested for doing so” said Abortion Rights Advocate and Storyteller Kelsey Leigh. “They were wondering where they would stay and trying to scrape together what money they had for gas and food. But as I spoke to each patient, it was a gift to be the first one of many to reassure them that they had called the right place. That not only would our clinic provide them with competent, compassionate health care, but that they were coming to a city and a county dedicated to protecting and expanding our freedoms and rights filled with community members who were giving their time and energy to make their journey here to have an abortion a little easier. And the truth is both before and after Roe vs. Wade fell. This is what abortion access has looked like for most of America and especially for brown and black people.”

Background

  • The Supreme Court will review a lower court decision that would make mifepristone, the commonly used medication abortion pill, less accessible. If the Supreme Court upholds the decision, it will be another terrible blow to abortion access for people across the country.
    • The case, Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine v. FDA, was filed by an anti-abortion group. A federal district court in Texas issued a decision to block the FDA’s approval of mifepristone. 
    • Medication abortion accounts for more than half (53%) of all abortions, and was approved by the FDA in 2000–and has been used by nearly 5 million patients across the country (Center for Reproductive Rights).
  • Western Pennsylvania remains ground zero in the fight for abortion access.
    • The presumptive Republican nominee for the US Senate, David McCormick, called the overturning of Roe “a huge step forward and a huge victory for life” (WESA).
    • After Ohio passed their fetal heartbeat bill, the number of Ohioans who traveled to Pennsylvania for an abortion in 2022 doubled (Pennsylvania Department of Health). This puts a strain on the already under-resourced reproductive health care providers in Western Pennsylvania.
      • In 2019, a study found that maternal mortality rates for Black women in Pittsburgh were higher than in most other US cities (Pittsburgh’s Gender Inequity Commission). Additional strain on reproductive healthcare facilities only furthers the crisis, worsening the crisis.  


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