The municipal board for Radnor Township on Monday voted 4-3 for an ordinance effectively tying the hands of police should abortion services be criminalized in the swing state. The township’s vote is the latest move by local and state governments expecting the Supreme Court to undo landmark abortion rights this month.
A draft opinion leaked in May showed the court preparing to reverse the Roe v. Wade decision that recognized the right to an abortion. In anticipation of the court’s sweeping decision, Republican-controlled states have enacted new restrictions on abortions while Democrat-led states have sought to shore up protections for the procedure.
Now Radnor Township, a municipality of about 33,000 outside of Philadelphia, has also taken a concrete step to protect abortion rights.
“In Pennsylvania, where abortion rights are not protected under the commonwealth constitution, the door is now wide open for state politicians hostile to sexual and reproductive health and rights to deny abortion care to millions of Pennsylvanians,” Moira Mulroney, president of the Radnor Board of Commissioners, said Monday.
Mulroney said the ordinance was needed, pointing out that Pennsylvania Republican gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano and GOP legislators have said they will restrict abortion rights.
A draft of the ordinance states that “it is the intention of Radnor Township to decline participation” in an abortion ban.
Opponents of the ordinance, including the public and members of the board, argued that it inappropriately injected municipal government into a contentious political issue.
“I think it’s wrong,” Commissioner Sean Farhy said at the meeting. “I mean, this is not what we were elected to do. We were elected to talk about parks or streets or stormwater, or our $40 million budget.”
Noting that he was a Democrat who supports a woman’s right to choose, Farhy also raised concerns about how abortion clinics left to operate in the township would be overseen.
The ordinance blocks police or other law enforcement officials from using any township resources to file charges, make arrests, conduct investigations or cooperate with other agencies to enforce abortion restrictions. Specifically, the ordinance applies to new laws that apply to women seeking abortions during the first 24 weeks of their pregnancy or when the health of the mother is endangered.
Mulroney told Newsweek in an email that the ordinance was drafted by Commissioner Jack Larkin, a municipal litigator who reviewed the draft with the township solicitor and other colleagues.
She pointed to other cities seeking to protect abortion rights. Austin, Texas, is considering a measure that would direct police to deprioritize enforcement of abortion restrictions.
“We are in discussions with commissioners in other local townships who are considering using our ordinance as a model for their own but I don’t know of any that have raised it yet,” she said.
The ordinance goes into effect 31 days after being enacted.
Update 06/15/22, 5:00 p.m. ET: This article was updated with additional information and background.
