The ruling by a divided seven-judge panel of the appellate-level Commonwealth Court is a major victory for Planned Parenthood and abortion clinic operators who first sued Pennsylvania over its Medicaid funding restrictions in 2019.
The case could still be appealed to Pennsylvania's Supreme Court.
“Today, our Commonwealth Court, looking at the Pennsylvania constitution, held that there is a right to reproductive autonomy, and it’s the highest possible level of a right,” said Susan Frietsche, executive director of the Women's Law Project, which helped represent the clinics.
A spokesperson for Attorney General David Sunday, a Republican, said the office was reviewing the decision and did not say whether it would appeal.
Democrats roundly praised the decision, as did abortion rights advocates.
“I’ve long opposed this unconstitutional ban, and as Governor, I did not defend it — because a woman’s ability to access reproductive care should never be determined by her income,” Gov. Josh Shapiro said in a statement.
The likely Republican nominee to challenge Shapiro in the fall general election, state Treasurer Stacy Garrity, said in a statement that the court's decision “to force our tax dollars to pay for abortions is not only misguided, it is immoral.”
