Pennsylvania Medicaid Abortion Coverage Ban Struck Down (1)

Pennsylvania’s prohibition on Medicaid coverage for abortions was struck down Monday by a state appeals court, which held it violates the state Constitution’s equal protection provisions.

The coverage exclusion doesn’t advance any compelling state interest to justify it, the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court said.

Even if the court accepted the state’s arguments that it has a compelling interest in having pregnancies carried to term, “any state interest in promoting carrying a pregnancy to term is furthered at least as well by state investment in maternal and infant healthcare, and in childcare and other resources for new mothers, as it is by the Coverage Exclusion,” Judge Matthew S. Wolf wrote.

Local abortion providers challenged the states’ Abortion Control Act, arguing the coverage exclusion provision violated the equal rights amendments and equal protection under the state constitution. The coverage exclusion language prohibits Medicaid payments from covering abortion in Pennsylvania in most circumstances.

The court held the coverage exclusion violates Pennsylvania’s equal rights amendment and is unconstitutional given that the state constitution “guarantees a fundamental right to reproductive autonomy.”

“The conscience interest the Coverage Exclusion protects is extremely narrow: it is only the interest of those who oppose state-funded abortion for women who rely on Medical Assistance, except in cases where the life of the mother is at risk and cases of rape or incest, but with no exception for the mother’s health or the viability of the fetus,” Wolf wrote. “It is irrational for the Coverage Exclusion to protect only that very narrow conscience interest and no others.”

In a dissent, Judge Patricia A. McCullough asserted that the majority’s opinion in the case “decides an unnecessary constitutional question by creating a new fundamental right that has no definition, no contours, no practical applicability, and no textual support in the Pennsylvania Constitution.”

“If the People desire such a right, they freely may amend their constitution,” she wrote. “This Court may not.”

McCullough was joined in her dissent by Judges Anne E. Covey and Stacy Wallace.

The plaintiffs are represented by the Women’s Law Project, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, attorney David S. Cohen, and Troutman Pepper Locke.

Planned Parenthood has received funding from Bloomberg Philanthropies, the charitable organization founded by Michael Bloomberg. Bloomberg Law is operated by entities controlled by Michael Bloomberg.

The case is Allegheny Reproductive Health Ctr. v. Pa. Dep’t of Human Servs., Pa. Commw. Ct., No. 26 M.D. 2019, 4/20/26.