Pa. court recognizes 'reproductive autonomy' as a right, strikes down ban on public funding for abortion

Source: Philadelphia Inquirer

Published April 20, 2026, 11:19 a.m. ET


Pennsylvania’s ban on public funding for abortion is unconstitutional, a divided Commonwealth Court ruled Monday. In reaching that conclusion, the statewide court that oversees government-related matters, recognized “a fundamental right to reproductive autonomy” in the Pennsylvania Constitution. The finding likely sets up another clash over abortion in the state Supreme Court, where three justices previously signaled their willingness to rule that abortion access is a right.

Recognizing the right is necessary to restrict government “attempts to coerce reproductive choice,” Judge Matthew Wolf wrote for the majority.“Those choices are the People’s, not the government’s,” Wolf wrote. Fellow Democrats Michael Wojcik and Lori Dumas joined the majority opinion, as did the Republican President Judge Renee Cohn Jubelirer.

The three-judge dissent, authored by Republican Patricia McCullough, attacked the majority opinion, saying it declared that “corporate” abortion providers have “have a constitutionally mandated ability to bill Pennsylvania taxpayers to pay for abortion on-demand.”. There are still unanswered question of facts in this case, McCullough wrote, and the majority “short circuited” the process by issuing its ruling without hearing more evidence. “I simply cannot recall another case in which this Court has decided issues of such profound public importance in this kind of summary, we-believe-you-if-you-say-so fashion,” McCullough wrote. Republicans Anne Covey and Stacy Wallace joined the dissent.

Elizabeth Lester-Abdalla, a Women’s Law Project attorney who argued the case in Commonwealth Court on behalf of abortion providers, called the ruling a “landmark victory.”

Read more: https://www.inquirer.com/news/pennsylvania/abortion-pennsylvania-constitutional-right-court-allegheny-reproductive-health-20260420.html