Insisting that women can no longer trust the U.S. Supreme Court to protect their right to get an abortion, U.S. Senate candidate Val Arkoosh urged senators to codify the landmark Roe v. Wade case into law and to help stop the “all-out assault on women’s health” that can only escalate from here.
Dr. Arkoosh, a physician who’s vying to become Pennsylvania’s first female senator, said it’s been a “dark week” for abortion rights in the U.S. and criticized the Supreme Court for opting not to block a new Texas law prohibiting most abortions in the state, which many advocates warn could embolden other states to pass restrictive anti-abortion laws.
“The consequences are dangerous and it’s clear we cannot trust the Supreme Court to defend the nearly 50 years of precedent set forth in Roe v. Wade,” Dr. Arkoosh said Friday, referring to the landmark 1973 decision that declared women have a constitutional right to an abortion.
The Supreme Court voted 5-4 earlier this week to deny an emergency appeal from abortion providers to put a stop to a Texas law banning abortions once medical professionals can detect cardiac activity, which usually happens around the six-week mark and before many women know they’re pregnant. In response, many Democrats and abortion-rights advocates vowed to use this moment to go after GOP lawmakers who support the Texas law, and U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the chamber would soon vote on codifying Roe v. Wade into law.
But that law -- the Women’s Health Protection Act -- would face an uphill battle in the Senate. Dr. Arkoosh said she’d be a staunch defender of women’s rights if she were elected next year.
“I cannot imagine a stronger voice in the U.S. Senate to stand up for women . . . across this commonwealth so each woman has the decision over what happens to her body without interference of elected officials,” Dr. Arkoosh, who is a candidate for the Democratic nomination, said.
Dr. Arkoosh made these comments in a virtual press conference, joined by two Pittsburgh-area women who told stories of their own decisions to get an abortion.
Kelsey Leigh, a Fox Chapel resident who terminated her pregnancy at 21 weeks in 2016 and who recalled the experience of a doctor telling her — during a basic ultrasound check-in — that her baby wasn’t moving, that his limbs were severely deformed and that there was a significant problem with his global muscular system. If the pregnancy was continued, his bones would have broken upon delivery, she said.
Ms. Leigh said she did what was best for her family and got an abortion.
“It was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done to say goodbye to my baby boy before I ever met him or held him on the outside,” Ms. Leigh said, “but it was also the decision I am most firm in that I’ve ever made. It was the right choice.”
Whitney Joson, of Pittsburgh, was told at around the 17-week mark during an anatomy scan that there was something wrong with her baby’s skull and that different structures of his brain were missing. She was told that if she had the baby, there were no surgeries the hospital could do — so in effect, “they would send our baby home to pass away.”
“We knew right away this was what we were going to do for our child,” Ms. Joson said.
Ms. Joson said the restrictive abortion laws do not consider women’s lives at all. Both women noted that Pennsylvania’s legislature tried to pass a similar ban.
“I can say without a doubt that had that law been on the books, I would have done everything I could have done to get to somewhere where I could have an abortion,” Ms. Leigh said, adding that she couldn’t knowingly bring her child into the world in pain “while putting myself through five months of pain in that pregnancy.”
Besides Texas, at least 12 other states have enacted bans early in pregnancy, but all have been blocked from going into effect. Dr. Arkoosh said women are pregnant today in Texas and need immediate action, and that the solution is to codify Roe v. Wade.
Ms. Leigh said it’s important to vote, not just in national races, but for local and state judges. Those courts are making impactful decisions, too, she said.
“These courts and the people who sit on them matter,” Ms. Leigh said.
Other Democratic candidates for Senate support passing the Women’s Health Protection Act, including Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, who said in a statement that the “right to an abortion is non-negotiable” and that “Democrats in Washington must act.” U.S. Rep. Conor Lamb, D-Mt. Lebanon, tweeted on Thursday that he co-sponsors the bill, that the House will pass it and that “we need to elect a Senate that will do the same.”
Julian Routh: jrouth@post-gazette.com, 412-263-1952, Twitter @julianrouth. The Associated Press contributed.
First Published: September 3, 2021, 6:56 p.m.
