Just before midnight on Thursday, Republicans in Pennsylvania’s Senate quietly advanced a proposed amendment to the state’s constitution that would remove any right to abortion. The Senate Rules Committee Meeting went past curfew Thursday as lawmakers hammered out budget matters and a House-approved package of constitutional amendments. Republican Sen. Judy Ward’s proposed abortion amendment was added to the package in an 11-6 vote on party lines. If the amendment passes both GOP-controlled houses in two legislative sessions, it will go to the public for a vote. The governor wouldn’t be able to veto it. Ward claimed it wouldn’t outlaw abortion as the procedure is protected by the state’s Abortion Control Act but critics pointed out that a governor could easily overturn the Act in light of the Supreme Court’s recent Roe v. Wade ruling. “They wanted it tonight, run in the dark of night,” Democratic Sen. Vincent Hughes fumed. “This is not a bridge-naming bill that you can decide at the last minute that you forgot to add... They knew throughout the course of the day that this was what they were going to do.”
