In its final meeting before its summer recess, Pittsburgh City Council affirmed support for abortion rights by passing bills intended to limit the legal exposure of abortion providers — and to allow for more scrutiny of “pregnancy crisis centers” operated by abortion foes.
The bills come in the wake of last month’s decision by the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade. In a statement, Councilor Bobby Wilson, who sponsored the measures, said he drafted them because the court “took away the constitutional right of every American, every Pennsylvanian, every Pittsburgher to choose what happens to their body. I cannot accept that."
After debating the bills last week, council passed two of the measures with little fanfare Tuesday.
One of them precludes city officials from providing assistance to investigations of abortion providers, absent a court order. The measure – said to be the first of its kind in the country – is an effort to pre-empt the possibility that other states might pass laws to criminalize residents who seek abortions beyond state borders: It specifically exempts criminal or civil cases initiated under Pennsylvania law.
But a second bill asserts that, if abortion rights are restricted within Pennsylvania itself, by changes either in federal or state law, city police and officials will “deprioritize” enforcing such a law “to the fullest extent possible.”
“It is the intention of the City of Pittsburgh to decline participation in any such ban on access to reproductive health care services … to the fullest extent of its authority,” the measure asserts.
Council did amend a third bill, focused on crisis centers, before passing it Tuesday. The measure is an effort to police what it calls “deceptive advertising,” by such facilities, which abortion foes operate in an effort to dissuade pregnant people from obtaining an abortion.
Critics say such centers lure clients with ultrasound and other services, and then pressure them not to seek an abortion through means that include false claims about abortion’s medical impact. Center operators counter that the law already punishes false advertising, and that they are offering alternatives to abortion to potential parents.
One such operator, Tiffany Gilbert, joined a series of abortion foes who urged the bills be voted down during council’s public-comment period
Gilbert said the measure “could in fact be deemed as discriminatory” because it only applied “facilities that provide services for pregnant women and do not perform or refer for abortions. …Why would you seek to deny services to the women who want to consider the alternatives before making a final and absolute decision?”
Several councilors had expressed misgivings about the bill’s language last week, and Wilson, who sponsored all three bills, offered amendments to the measure before the final vote Tuesday. The new language offers a more explicit definition of “deceptive advertising” which includes efforts to “disparag[e] the goods, services, or business of another by false or misleading” claims, or to advertise goods or services with intent not to provide or offer them.”
The new language also creates a means of enforcing the law – something councilors called for last week – by requiring the city to create an online complaint form and setting a 60-day deadline for a city agency chosen by the mayor to investigate, with possible referrals to law enforcement.
Council approved those changes, and the bills themselves, with little discussion. The measures now head to the desk of Mayor Ed Gainey.
Councilors also approved a new map of council districts, drafted to reflect demographic shifts recorded in the 2020 Census. Changes from the current map are relatively modest, and are largely driven by an effort to assure Black representation in 2 of the 9 Council districts. As the city’s Black population has shrunk, those districts were expanded. Only Councilor Erika Strassburger, whose District 8 lost some of its footprint as a result, voted against the proposal.
The meeting was the last before council’s summer recess, which will last until next month, when council will reconvene on Aug. 19.
