Pennsylvania HB 26: An Act amending Titles 18 (Crimes and Offenses), 35 (Health and Safety) and 40 (Insurance) of the Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes, in provisions relating to abortion, repealing provisions relating to short title of chapter and to legislative intent, further providing for definitions, repealing provisions relating to medical consultation and judgment, to informed consent, to parental consent, to abortion facilities, to printed information, to Commonwealth interference prohibited, to spousal notice, to determination of gestational age, to abortion on unborn child of 24 or more weeks gestational age, to infanticide, to prohibited acts and to reporting, further providing for publicly owned facilities, public officials and public funds and for fetal experimentation and repealing provisions relating to civil penalties, to criminal penalties, to State Board of Medicine and State Board of Osteopathic Medicine and to construction; providing for reproductive rights; repealing provisions relating to compliance with Federal health care legislation as to regulation of insurers and related persons generally; and imposing penalties.

Bill Text

PRINTER'S NO. 7
THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF PENNSYLVANIA
HOUSE BILL
No. 26
Session of
2025
INTRODUCED BY HOWARD, PROBST, HANBIDGE, SANCHEZ, PIELLI, GIRAL,
VENKAT, GUENST, FIEDLER, KHAN, KINKEAD, ISAACSON, BOROWSKI,
CEPEDA-FREYTIZ, HOHENSTEIN, CIRESI, DELLOSO, SCHLOSSBERG,
SHUSTERMAN, MALAGARI, HILL-EVANS, FRANKEL, DONAHUE, DALEY,
SAPPEY, CERRATO, POWELL, OTTEN, BRIGGS AND O'MARA,
JANUARY 8, 2025
REFERRED TO COMMITTEE ON HEALTH, JANUARY 8, 2025
AN ACT
Amending Titles 18 (Crimes and Offenses), 35 (Health and Safety)
and 40 (Insurance) of the Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes,
in provisions relating to abortion, repealing provisions
relating to short title of chapter and to legislative intent,
further providing for definitions, repealing provisions
relating to medical consultation and judgment, to informed
consent, to parental consent, to abortion facilities, to
printed information, to Commonwealth interference prohibited,
to spousal notice, to determination of gestational age, to
abortion on unborn child of 24 or more weeks gestational age,
to infanticide, to prohibited acts and to reporting, further
providing for publicly owned facilities, public officials and
public funds and for fetal experimentation and repealing
provisions relating to civil penalties, to criminal
penalties, to State Board of Medicine and State Board of
Osteopathic Medicine and to construction; providing for
reproductive rights; repealing provisions relating to
compliance with Federal health care legislation as to
regulation of insurers and related persons generally; and
imposing penalties.
The General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
hereby enacts as follows:
Section 1. Chapter 32 heading of Title 18 of the
Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes is amended to read:
CHAPTER 32
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[ABORTION]
REPRODUCTIVE OFFENSES
Section 2. Sections 3201 and 3202 of Title 18 are repealed:
[§ 3201. Short title of chapter.
This chapter shall be known and may be cited as the "Abortion
Control Act."
§ 3202. Legislative intent.
(a) Rights and interests.--It is the intention of the
General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to protect
hereby the life and health of the woman subject to abortion and
to protect the life and health of the child subject to abortion.
It is the further intention of the General Assembly to foster
the development of standards of professional conduct in a
critical area of medical practice, to provide for development of
statistical data and to protect the right of the minor woman
voluntarily to decide to submit to abortion or to carry her
child to term. The General Assembly finds as fact that the
rights and interests furthered by this chapter are not secure in
the context in which abortion is presently performed.
(b) Conclusions.--Reliable and convincing evidence has
compelled the General Assembly to conclude and the General
Assembly does hereby solemnly declare and find that:
(1) Many women now seek or are encouraged to undergo
abortions without full knowledge of the development of the
unborn child or of alternatives to abortion.
(2) The gestational age at which viability of an unborn
child occurs has been lowering substantially and steadily as
advances in neonatal medical care continue to be made.
(3) A significant number of late-term abortions result
in live births, or in delivery of children who could survive
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if measures were taken to bring about breathing. Some
physicians have been allowing these children to die or have
been failing to induce breathing.
(4) Because the Commonwealth places a supreme value upon
protecting human life, it is necessary that those physicians
which it permits to practice medicine be held to precise
standards of care in cases where their actions do or may
result in the death of an unborn child.
(5) A reasonable waiting period, as contained in this
chapter, is critical to the assurance that a woman elect to
undergo an abortion procedure only after having the fullest
opportunity to give her informed consent thereto.
(c) Construction.--In every relevant civil or criminal
proceeding in which it is possible to do so without violating
the Federal Constitution, the common and statutory law of
Pennsylvania shall be construed so as to extend to the unborn
the equal protection of the laws and to further the public
policy of this Commonwealth encouraging childbirth over
abortion.
(d) Right of conscience.--It is the further public policy of
the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to respect and protect the
right of conscience of all persons who refuse to obtain,
receive, subsidize, accept or provide abortions including those
persons who are engaged in the delivery of medical services and
medical care whether acting individually, corporately or in
association with other persons; and to prohibit all forms of
discrimination, disqualification, coerci