Pennsylvania’s Governor Race Focuses on Abortion Following Supreme Court Ruling

Abortion is now front and center in the gubernatorial race in Pennsylvania after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, leaving states to individually set abortion access laws.

The race is very tight between Pennsylvania state Sen. Doug Mastriano, a Republican, and Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro., a Democrat. The latest election poll by the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP), released two days before the Supreme Court ruling on abortion, showed Shapiro holding a slim lead—49 percent to 46 percent—over Mastriano.

On June 26, Shapiro took to Twitter to say what he would do if elected governor.

“As Governor, I won’t hesitate to veto any bill that undermines a woman’s right to choose in Pennsylvania,” he wrote. “Doug Mastriano wouldn’t hesitate to sign that bill into law—and outright ban abortion in the Commonwealth.

“That’s the difference.”

Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro in Philadelphia, Pa., on March 2, 2017. (Jessica Kourkounis/Getty Images)

Hours after his initial Twitter post, Shapiro said he would continue the pro-abortion stance of the current Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf, a Democrat.

“In Pennsylvania, women still have the choice—and that’s because of the veto pen of our Democratic Governor,” Shapiro said. “We can’t lose that veto pen.”

One day earlier, Shapiro held a rally at Philadelphia’s National Constitution Center, during which he told his supporters to vote in November and pledged his support for abortion.

The Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, a seminal 1973 ruling that largely legalized abortion nationwide, on June 24 following a 6–3 decision. Justice Samuel Alito, who wrote the court’s majority opinion, said that “Roe was egregiously wrong from the start,” and “It is time to heed the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the people’s elected representatives.”

Abortion has become illegal in some states with so-called trigger laws, but