Mastriano has walked a fine line on abortion since winning the governor’s primary and the Supreme Court overruling Roe v. Wade, making the issue one of the most relevant ahead of the November election. While he tried to portray his Democratic opponent, Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro, as “extreme” on the issue, he also downplayed his past positions on abortion, saying the issue is up to voters in the US. State.
In a 2019 interview with Pennsylvania radio station WITF, which was first redone Tuesday by NBC News, Mastriano spoke about a bill he sponsored in the state legislature that would have prohibits abortion as soon as cardiac activity is detected, approximately six weeks into pregnancy.
Pennsylvania Senate Bill 912 – which never passed – would have significantly changed existing law in the state, which allows abortions up to 24 weeks and beyond in cases where the life and the mother’s health would otherwise be clearly endangered.
The interviewer asked Mastriano to clarify whether he argued that a woman who had an abortion at 10 weeks gestation should be charged with murder. “Yes, I am,” Mastriano replied, insisting that the fetus deserves “equal protection under the law.”
He also suggested in the interview that doctors who perform abortions after detecting heart activity should face the same charge. “It’s up to the courts,” he said. “If it’s decided that this little person is a baby, a human being, then it’s murder, and it has to go through the legal process.” The Washington Post could not immediately reach Mastriano for comment Wednesday morning.
After the Supreme Court overturned roe deer in June, the abortion issue has upended midterms, appearing to energize the Democratic base and challenging what was previously supposed to be a landslide GOP victory. More than a dozen US states have since completely or largely banned abortion.
Pennsylvania is a purple state, with a Democratic governor and a Republican-controlled legislature.
Mastriano is a controversial figure in the state. He was accused of Islamophobic comments, was photographed wearing a Confederate uniform and was on the grounds of the US Capitol on the day of the January 6, 2021, uprising by a pro-Trump crowd.
He has always opposed abortion — and has gone further than some other Republicans in arguing against the procedure, even in extreme cases like rape. His 2019 bill was referred to the state Senate Health and Human Services Committee, but did not become law. However, in 2021, the senator reintroduced the bill, now as Senate Bill 378.
While on his campaign website, Mastriano pledges to sign a fetal heart activity bill, “end funding to Planned Parenthood and expand guidance to adoption services” if he is elected, he also attempted to focus on voters and legislators.
“If Pennsylvanians want exceptions, if they want to limit the number of weeks, it will have to come from your legislative body and then from my office,” he recently told a conservative network.
Shapiro, Mastriano’s opponent, presented himself as the last line of defense for Pennsylvanians’ abortion rights. In September last year, he joined a coalition of 24 attorneys general to file an amicus brief in support of the Justice Department’s challenge to a proposed six-year abortion ban. weeks in Texas.
In May, Shapiro told the New York Times, “The Legislature is going to introduce a bill in the office of the next governor to ban abortion. Each of my opponents would sign it into law, and I would veto it.
Amber Philipps, Hannah Knowles and Caroline Kitchener contributed to this report.
