For Now, Pennsylvanians Can Use Medicaid To Cover Abortions

By Ian Karbal | Pennsylvania Capital-Star

A Commonwealth Court judge ruled Pennsylvanians can use Medicaid to cover abortions, at least temporarily overturning a decades-long ban.

“This is the day we’ve been fighting for since 2019,” said Christine Castro, a senior staff attorney with the Women’s Law Project. “For the first time in more than 40 years that this discriminatory coverage ban has been in effect, Pennsylvanians enrolled in Medicaid can no longer be denied abortion coverage.”

Since 1982, Pennsylvania has banned the use of Medicaid funds to pay for abortions.

But in April, the Commonwealth Court sided 4-3 with a group of reproductive health care providers and overturned that ban, finding it violated the state constitution’s Equal Rights Amendment.

After the ruling, Republican state Attorney General Dave Sunday appealed the case to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, a move that automatically stayed the lower court’s decision and effectively maintained the ban on Medicaid-funded abortions.

But on Wednesday, Commonwealth Court Judge Matthew Wolf issued an opinion allowing the court’s ruling to stand, even as the state Supreme Court considers the case.

That’s in part because Wolf found that an earlier state Supreme Court ruling, which said the abortion ban could be challenged under laws against sex-based discrimination, indicated that they’re likely to side with the reproductive healthcare providers.

Wolf also wrote that it’s in the public interest not to enforce a law that the court found to be unconstitutional.

“Continued enforcement of the Coverage Exclusion irreparably injures Providers and their prospective patients as a matter of our most fundamental law,” Wolf wrote.

The case was first brought in 2019 against the state Department of Human Services.

When Josh Shapiro served as Attorney General until his election as governor in 2022, he had declined to defend the state’s ban on Medicaid-funded abortions, calling it unconstitutional.

But when Sunday was elected in 2024, he intervened in the case to defend it. A spokesperson for his office declined to comment on the ongoing case.

“For decades, politicians singled out people with low incomes and denied them insurance coverage for abortion care simply because they relied on Medicaid,” Melissa Reed, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Keystone said in a statement. “Every Pennsylvanian deserves the freedom to make their own health care decisions without financial barriers standing in the way. Regardless of income level or type of insurance, Planned Parenthood Keystone will now be able to provide critical care.”

Pennsylvania Capital-Star is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Pennsylvania Capital-Star maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Tim Lambert for questions: info@penncapital-star.com.