In response to the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade over the summer, and to the recent rise in gun violence, including a mass shooting on South Street in Philadelphia and the killing of a teenage football player in Roxborough, the Philadelphia Bar Association Board of Governors passed resolutions at its September 29 meeting urging a stronger government response.
In the resolution addressing the June decision in Dobbs v. Jackson, the Board calls on Pennsylvania lawmakers not to further restrict reproductive rights or access to abortion in the Commonwealth and to pass “evidence-based laws that protect the health and safety of pregnant people to reduce maternal mortality, recognize the importance of not imposing further restrictions in cases of rape, incest and where the life or health of the pregnant person is at risk, and increase access to health care.”
Additionally, the Association called for the passage of legislation that would legally protect health care workers in Pennsylvania who provide abortion care to residents of states where it is banned or restricted.
“The Dobbs decision upended decades of legal precedent and took our country backward in terms of personal rights,” said Chancellor Wesley R. Payne IV. “The decision damaged public respect for the rule of law. It was important for us to speak out in defense of the integrity of our legal system, confidence in our judiciary and the preservation of long-recognized rights.”
The resolution on gun violence supports state and federal legislation that would establish safe gun storage requirements, create extreme-risk protection orders, ban semi-automatic assault weapons and large capacity ammunition magazines, require background checks for all firearm sales, mandate the reporting of lost or stolen firearms, authorize local communities to enact life-saving gun safety policies, and regulate the sale of ghost guns, 3-D printed guns and similar technologies.
“Residents of our City are impacted by gun violence every day; just this week, a teenager was killed and four others were injured while playing a high school football game,” Payne said. “We all deserve to feel safe in our neighborhoods, and while going about our daily lives. We want our City to be a safe and vibrant place for our members to work. Our proposals are common-sense gun laws that the majority of Pennsylvanians and Americans support.”
Payne commended the Board for taking action on both resolutions and the Women’s Rights and Civil Rights Committees for spearheading the effort to prepare them. This is the first time the Board of Governors has passed a resolution specifically supporting reproductive rights, and the first resolution advocating for gun violence legislation in several years.
“We have a responsibility to speak out on issues that impact key elements of our Association’s mission, namely the strength of our legal system and the safety and well-being of our members,” Payne said. “We are proud Philadelphians and our city is currently in crisis – we want to do what we can to help.”
You can read the full text of both resolutions here.
