Never mind the U.S. Supreme Court. Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court has its own landmark abortion case rapidly approaching.

The federal right to abortion is in peril. On Dec. 1, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization — the first abortion case the Supreme Court will decide on the merits since Justice Amy Coney Barrett replaced Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Most legal scholars believe the court will overturn Roe v. Wade, if not this term, then slowly, but deliberately, in a series of cases over the next few years.

Where does that leave the right to abortion in Pennsylvania, one of the most purple states in the country? If Roe falls and state legislatures are explicitly allowed to ban almost all abortions in their borders, our state’s Democratic governor will be the only thing stopping our Republican legislature from banning abortion in our state.

But the governor’s office is not the only state institution capable of protecting abortion rights in Pennsylvania. There is also the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court is also considering a landmark abortion case this term: Allegheny Reproductive Health Center v. Pennsylvania Department of Human Services.

The case challenges a Pennsylvania law that bans Medicaid funds from being used to cover abortion except in the case of rape, incest or to save the pregnant person’s life.

Importantly, the litigants are asking the court to recognize the right to abortion under the Pennsylvania Constitution. If the court recognizes this right — which it has not previously recognized — then even if Roe is overturned, the Pennsylvania Constitution will step up to protect the right to abortion in our state.

Moreover, this protection will survive even if voters elect a Republican governor who is willing to sign a strict abortion ban into law. Why? Because that theoretical ban would be unconstitutional under our Constitution even if it is no longer unconstitutional under the federal Constitution.

This is an incredibly important stopgap to ensure that the right to abortion is protected in our state regardless of what happens at the U.S. Supreme Court.

But pregnant people need more than the right to abortion; they need the ability to access it. If the Pennsylvania Supreme Court also invalidates the state law banning Medicaid funds from being used for abortion, it would help poor women access the abortion care they need.

More than one-third of abortion patients nationwide are enrolled in Medicaid — a group that is entirely low-income and disproportionately women of color.

It is a sad commentary that the patients least able to afford an abortion are also banned from using their state health insurance to pay for their reproductive health care.

A person’s financial status should not determine whether she can access her constitutional rights, yet that is our current system in Pennsylvania. This case could change that unjust reality.

So while it may feel like all hope is lost when it comes to the national right to abortion under Roe v. Wade, there is reason to hope that our Pennsylvania Supreme Court may step up and protect the rights lost at the U.S. Supreme Court.

And Pennsylvania could become a safe haven for basic reproductive health care across the region.

Greer Donley is an assistant professor at the University of Pittsburgh Law School and a board member of the Women’s Law Project.

First Published: December 9, 2021, 5:00 a.m.