PCUC | Pregnancy Resources and Information for Southwestern PA
On June 5, 2013, the Pa. Senate passed H.B. 818 by a vote of 31-19. On June 4, 2013, the Pa. Senate defeated two gutting amendments, Schwank 26-24, and Vance 27-23. The following is a record of the votes of our Pa. Senators for all three votes.
We should rejoice that this legislation (which Gov. Corbett has indicated that he is likely to sign) will significantly mitigate the pro-abortion harms of Obamacare.
2. The Substance of These Two Amendments
The purpose of the two amendments offered by the pro-abortion senators was to defeat the bill. The reason is the supporters of these amendments realized that the Pa. House would never agree to them and, therefore, H.B. 818 would die if any of these amendments passed.
A. The “Schwank Amendment” created a “medical emergency” exception in H.B 818. Sen. Schwank argued that since the Abortion Control Act had a “medical emergency” exception for the informed consent and parental consent provisions that such an exception should be in H.B 818.
Her reasoning created a false comparison. There are no medical emergencies over the timeliness of a payment for an abortion from a government agency or an insurance company.
B. The “Vance Amendment” stated that those restrictions would not apply to totally private plans on the exchange. The substantive arguments against the “Vance Amendment” were:
1. There are no totally private plans on Obamacare exchanges, since they all receive government subsidies for their administrative costs.
2. The federal Obamacare legislation does not allow states to make a “private plan” adjustment. This legislation only allows states to say yes or no to abortion funding restrictions for insurance plans on the state exchanges. Thus, federal courts would very likely strike down H.B. 818 if it had been passed with the “Vance Amendment”.
How the rest of the Southwestern PA Senators Voted:
A “yes” vote on either of the amendments was a Pro-abortion vote.
A “yes” vote on the final passage was a Pro-Life vote
Some of our southwestern Senators had a mixed vote on HB 818
The Senators who voted totally PRO-LIFE were:
Senator Hutchinson, Kasunic, Robbins, Solobay, Vogel, Vulakovich, Ward and White
The Senator who voted part pro-abortion but Pro-Life on final passage of the bill:
Senator Brewster
The Senators who voted totally pro-ABORTION were:
Senators Costa, Fontano and Smith
Please let these Senators know of your approval or disapproval of their votes. It is very important that they hear from YOU!
For information on who your Senator is go to the LIFEPAC webpage, click here.