Elected officials and community leaders recently held a roundtable discussion on reproductive healthcare access in the post-Roe era. Panelists included Speaker of the Pennsylvania House Joanna McClinton, state Rep. Brian Munroe, former Planned Parenthood of Bucks County CEO Linda Hahn, and combat veteran Ashley Ehasz, a Democrat who is running against U.S. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick for the 1st Congressional District seat.
The roundtable was held two days before the anniversary of the Supreme Court Dobbs decision that overturned Roe v. Wade on June 24, 2022, ruling that the Constitution of the United States does not confer a right to abortion, and leaving it up to the leadership of individual states. In the same week as that anniversary, the Planned Parenthood Medical Center in Warminster closed on June 28. This was one of two Planned Parenthood centers in Bucks County.
According to Ehasz, an Iraq War veteran, former Apache helicopter pilot and West Point graduate, the Dobbs decision is harming the country’s armed forces. She said, “Active duty soldiers cannot choose the state that they are stationed, so they can be stationed in a state that bans abortion. My first duty station was in Alabama, my second duty station was in Texas … I would have no longer had access to abortion in many cases if I were still in today.”
McClinton said, “[If the GOP take the majority in the Pennsylvania House], we would be right back to where we started, which is passing a constitutional amendment for an abortion ban in the next term.”
Hahn said, “I sat in that waiting room [at Planned Parenthood] … I saw mothers and daughters, mothers crying and fathers sitting with daughters … and women who already had five children, who’s husbands were working three shifts who couldn’t afford that sixth baby. And to take that choice away from, not just women, families, in this country, is an abominable thing.”
Ehasz is endorsed by pro-choice organizations Planned Parenthood Action Fund, EMILYs List, Reproductive Freedom for All and Elect Democratic Women. She has also been endorsed by AFT-PA, NewDems Action Fund and VoteVets.
