Dave Sunday Appeals Medicaid Abortion Ban Ruling — Attorney General Of Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania attorney general Dave Sunday appealed a Commonwealth Court ruling on Tuesday that struck down the state’s ban on Medicaid coverage of abortions. The filing sends the dispute back to the state Supreme Court after last month’s 4-3 decision.
Sunday’s office said he has a statutory obligation to defend the ban as Commonwealth law. The appeal arrives after the court ruled the exclusion cannot single out abortion while funding comparable medical care and said it violates equal protection provisions in the state constitution.
Allegheny Reproductive Health Center Case
The case began in 2019, when Pittsburgh’s Allegheny Reproductive Health Center and a half-dozen other abortion care providers sued over the Medicaid abortion ban. They argued the restriction discriminates against poor women seeking to terminate a pregnancy. The Women’s Law Project is representing the clinics.
The Commonwealth Court dismissed the case in 2021, but the Pennsylvania Supreme Court revived it in 2024 and ruled the ban “presumptively unconstitutional.” Tara Murtha, director of impact and engagement at the Women’s Law Project, said, “The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania has already called the Medicaid ban ‘presumptively unconstitutional,’” and added, “This appeal is an expensive delay tactic that adds insult to injury.”
Shapiro and the Defense Gap
Last year, a hearing on the case put the Department of Human Services and abortion providers on the same side of the courtroom, with no attorney present to defend the coverage ban. The department oversees Medicaid and is the defendant in the case. The dispute turns on whether Pennsylvania can exclude abortion from Medicaid coverage while funding comparable medical care.
Sunday said, “My responsibility as Attorney General is to defend the rule of law and defend statutes without interference of personal opinion or political posturing.” Susan Frietsche, lead litigator for the Women’s Law Project, said, “The Attorney General has chosen to waste taxpayer dollars on trying to take reproductive rights away from Pennsylvanians,” and, “We look forward to once again arguing that reproductive choice belongs to the people, not the government.”
The appeal prolongs a case that has moved through dismissal, revival and a split appellate ruling, with the state Supreme Court now positioned to decide whether the Medicaid coverage ban can stand.
