{"id":50746,"date":"2022-07-10T08:16:42","date_gmt":"2022-07-10T12:16:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=50746"},"modified":"2022-07-10T08:16:45","modified_gmt":"2022-07-10T12:16:45","slug":"lawrence-hennessey-choosing-extreme-politics-over-chester-county-womens-lives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=50746","title":{"rendered":"Lawrence, Hennessey choosing extreme politics over Chester County women’s lives"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Mike McGann<\/strong>, Editor, The Times<\/em> @mikemcgannpa<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"In the middle of the night, Pennsylvania\u2019s legislators pushed through an amendment to the state Constitution removing any protection for abortion and women\u2019s health services \u2014 along with a number of anti-democratic measures that could make it harder for minorities to vote.<\/p>\n

There are massive issues with morality and democracy here, but the fact of the matter is that women \u2014 here in Chester County \u2014 will die if this reaches final passage and abortion is ultimately banned by the state legislature. And for that, Reps. Tim Hennessey (R-26) and John Lawrence (R-13) need to be held responsible. I\u2019ll note Craig Williams (R-160) voted against the measure, as did every Democratic state legislator in the county.<\/p>\n

Their votes could lead to the death of a woman you know \u2014 or maybe even love. Mothers, daughters, sisters and wives are being put at risk. If this passes, women will die. Assume that the legislature will again pass a total ban on abortion \u2014 and if elected \u2014 a Governor Doug Mastriano would sign it.<\/p>\n

And yes, there would be deaths \u2014 right here in Chester County \u2014 if such measures were adopted.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s do the math: about 6,000 live births per year in the county, based on the most recent few years of data. Somewhere between 1,000 and 1,500 miscarriages will happen as will about, 1,500 abortions. Many of the latter will come from reasons that threaten the health and life of the mother \u2014 procedures that save lives.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

1 in 50 pregnancies are ectopic \u2014 when the zygote gets stuck in the fallopian tube. Without treatment \u2014 typically an abortion \u2014 the woman can bleed to death. There is no way for such a pregnancy to go to term \u2014 and the zygote cannot be implanted in the uterus.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

There are dozens of other life saving measures that will be taken away, resulting in the death of women, somewhere between 100 and 200 every year in Chester County, if abortion rights go away in Pennsylvania. These would be needless, pointless deaths.<\/p>\n

Hennessey and Lawrence will have blood on their hands if the law changes through an amendment to the state Constitution.<\/p>\n

Republicans are trying to force their will over the sentiment of a solid majority of the residents of Pennsylvania \u2014 and of course, Chester County. They honestly don\u2019t care what you think as long as they can pander to their wildly extreme base.<\/p>\n

Aside from the whole immorality \u2014 and force feeding of a specific religious point of view in violation of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution \u2014 this process is intended to be politically corrupt.<\/p>\n

For an amendment to pass, it must pass two sessions of the state legislature and then pass a public referendum. That referendum would take place in May, 2023, the lowest turn out election in every two-year cycle.<\/p>\n

Gov. Tom Wolf can do nothing \u2014 he cannot veto any amendment bill.<\/p>\n

So, it comes down to you, the voters. Easiest fix: voting for Democratic candidates for state house, so this measure cannot not pass a second time and becomes moot. New, fairer districts no longer make this a pipe dream \u2014 with almost a dozen GOP-held seats at risk in the southeast.<\/p>\n

Less effective, but still workable: electing Josh Shapiro as governor. While he would not be able to stop the amendment, he still would be able to veto any bill outlawing abortion. Mastriano has made it clear he plans to pass such a bill.<\/p>\n

You know passing such measures in the middle of the night \u2014 shades of the 2005 pay hike \u2014 tells you that GOP legislators hoped nobody would notice. It\u2019s up to you to make sure they know you did notice and are angry.<\/p>\n

Vote. Get your friends and neighbors to vote. Spread the word.<\/p>\n

The future \u2014 and lives of women we love \u2014 is at risk. It\u2019s all in your hands. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Mike McGann, Editor, The Times @mikemcgannpa In the middle of the night, Pennsylvania\u2019s legislators pushed through an amendment to the state Constitution removing any protection for abortion and women\u2019s health services \u2014 along with a number of anti-democratic measures that could make it harder for minorities to vote. There are massive issues with morality […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":50745,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[1993,13798,7426,69,786,4017,5942],"class_list":["post-50746","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-commentary","tag-abortion","tag-constitutional-amendment","tag-featured","tag-legislature","tag-pennsylvania","tag-state-rep-john-lawrence","tag-state-rep-tim-hennessey"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50746","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=50746"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50746\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50747,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50746\/revisions\/50747"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/50745"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=50746"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=50746"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=50746"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}