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Bill that would limit abortions tabled by GOP

It's pulled amid veto warning

HARRISBURG — A legislative proposal to place new limits on abortion in Pennsylvania was in limbo Monday after Republicans that control the chamber pulled it from a final vote amid a veto warning from the Democratic governor.

The measure would ban elective abortions after 20 weeks, compared with 24 weeks in current law, and outlaw procedures that abort fetuses by removing body parts.

The delay was a significant change from last week, when Republicans, helped by a handful of Democrats, were easily able to assemble enough votes to position the measure for the final House vote.

News of the decision to put the bill on hold began to trickle out just as Gov. Tom Wolf and Planned Parenthood national President Cecile Richards warned during a Capitol news conference that the legislation would put women’s health at risk.

“Politicians are the last people who should be making decisions about women’s pregnancies,” Richards said. “This bill doesn’t make women safer. It actually puts them at risk.”

Sari Stevens with Planned Parenthood in Pennsylvania said the proposal would be the nation’s most restrictive abortion law because it combines two elements passed by other states. The change to 20 weeks would add Pennsylvania to about a dozen states with that limit; its ban on procedures that rely on removing body parts has been passed in Oklahoma and Kansas, but those laws were enjoined by the courts.

If the bill does make it out of the House, it faces an uncertain future in the Senate, where the Republican caucus has several moderate members.

Wolf repeated his veto threat on Monday, calling the legislation a step backward that would “interfere with real lives of real people.”

Three women told reporters about abortion decisions that occurred during the period after 20 weeks involving fetuses with severe health problems.

Kelsey Williams, of Wilkinsburg, said she was devastated to learn in February during a 20-week ultrasound that the fetus she was carrying suffered severe muscle deformities. The proposed changes, she said, “would have stripped me of my choice during such a vulnerable time.”

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