Pennsylvania Medicaid now covers abortion as attorney general fights to restore funding ban
Caroline MolloyPennsylvania’s Medicaid program began covering abortion procedures this month, even as the state’s attorney general presses an appeal to reinstate a decades-old ban on taxpayer-funded abortion.
Medical Assistance, the commonwealth’s Medicaid program, started paying for medication and procedural abortions on July 16, according to WHYY News, a PBS affiliate. The change follows an April 20 ruling from the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania that struck down a 1982 law barring state Medicaid funds from covering abortion, except in cases of rape, incest, and danger to the mother’s life.
Republican Attorney General Dave Sunday filed an appeal in May contesting the ruling. A judge ruled this past week that Medicaid coverage for abortion will continue while the appeal proceeds.
Sunday has said the appeal reflects his statutory duty as attorney general “to uphold and defend the constitutionality of all statutes so as to prevent their suspension or abrogation in the absence of a controlling decision by a court of competent jurisdiction.”
Pro-life groups are backing Sunday’s appeal. Leaders at organizations including the Pennsylvania Pro-Life Federation called the move a “bold step” and described the case as an “urgent matter,” according to WHYY.
“We believe quite strongly that taxpayer funds should not be used to pay for abortion, which is the taking of an innocent unrepeatable human life,” Maria Gallagher, executive director of the Pennsylvania Pro-Life Federation, said. “And we are hopeful that the Pennsylvania Supreme Court will reverse course on this and will ensure that our hard-earned tax dollars do not pay for abortion.”
Gallagher pointed to a 2024 study of Medicaid participants in six states, conducted before the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, that found lifetime abortion rates were higher in states where Medicaid covered the procedure.
“We know from research that when taxpayer funding of abortion occurs, abortion rates skyrocket,” Gallagher said.
