Activist groups to protest at Sen. Kim Ward's office over abortion bill

Two community activist groups that support abortion rights are planning to rally Friday afternoon outside the Southwest Greensburg office of state Senate Majority Leader Kim Ward, R-Hempfield.

“We want to make people aware of what Kim Ward is doing,” said Amanda Piern, the organizer for Voice of Westmoreland, which has joined with the Westmoreland Racial & Social Justice in the rally planned for 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. outsider of Ward’s office at Westmoreland Crossroads Plaza, 1075 S. Main St.

The rally is designed to address Ward’s support for Senate Bill 106. One of the elements of the bill’s five proposed state Constitutional amendments would give voters the opportunity to decide whether there is a constitutional right to taxpayer-funded abortion or other rights relating to abortion.

“I think it is a very poor thing to put any restrictions on abortion rights when Roe v. Wade has been overturned by the Dobbs decision,” in a Supreme Court ruling last month, Piern said.

Ward said in a statement, that “regardless of the rhetoric and misguided information being perpetrated, if the amendment passes or fails, abortion remains legal statutorily through the Pennsylvania Abortion Control Act.”

That state act grants women the right to abortion up to 24 weeks. After 24 weeks, a woman would be able to have a legal abortion if her life or health were endangered.

To place Senate Bill 106 on the ballot for voters, the proposed amendment would have to be passed in the 2023-2024 session of the General Assembly and be advertised before the election.

That would give voters the opportunity to decide whether abortion should be singled out as a special type of health care and added as a constitutional right, “or if it should remain with all other health care such as heart disease and cancer, which is a statutory right,” Ward said.

Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf responded to the passage of Senate Bill 106 by filing a lawsuit in the state Supreme Court against the Republican-controlled General Assembly’s attempt to restrict access to abortion. The Senate Republican caucus, in turn, responded to Wolf’s lawsuit by filing its own suit.

Ward said that while she respects the opinions of those who would hold the rally outside her office, “they may consider redirecting their energy to Gov. Wolf who has run to the courts trying to stop the opportunity for them and all Pennsylvanians to vote on the issues that are included as part of Senate Bill 106. Constitutional amendments being voted on at the ballot box is truly giving power to the people.”