Reproductive Rights Resolution Approved In Newtown Township

NEWTOWN TOWNSHIP, PA — After a second round of public comment, the Newtown Township Board of Supervisors on Wednesday adopted a resolution affirming the board of supervisors’ commitment to "valuing reproductive rights and supporting access to abortion."

In the resolution, the supervisors express their support for a woman’s right to choose, codifying the right to an abortion into federal law and condemning any act, by the Pennsylvania General Assembly or Congress, “restricting access” to reproductive healthcare, including abortion.

Voting in favor of the largely symbolic resolution were Dennis Fisher, Elen Snyder and Phil Calabro. Voting against was Kyle Davis. Supervisor John Mack was sick at home with COVID and did not attend the meeting.

Fisher, who voted to table the motion at the board’s last meeting to give more residents the opportunity to voice their opinion, was the first to weigh in on the resolution.

“I am pro choice. I would like the choice to be life,” said Fisher. “I believe the life of the newborn is precious, but it must be balanced with the health of the pregnant woman. I’d like the choice to be life either way. Choosing life presupposes choice. The choice is there to have life.”

Fisher then turned his remarks to the residents gathered inside the meeting room, many of whom were Pro Life advocates.

“I have to let you know there are a lot of other people who support this resolution,” he said. “The letters we received between the last meeting and this meeting are more in support of this resolution. I don’t think you need me to read all 70 of them.

“Is this something that is going to divide the community? The community is already divided. I think this community started to be divided this past spring when the Dobbs decision was leaked,” he said. “We’re not doing anything that’s not already out there. In fact I’d like to think that we
started a dialogue.

“We are also aware that other municipalities have enacted not only resolutions but ordinances. This resolution has no force of law. We’re not forcing anything on anybody,” he said. “We’re sending our message to Harrisburg. We have done this before. We have done Love is Love as a resolution. We have done fracking, plastics and Juneteenth as resolutions. Did everyone agree with us? No. At budget time, does everyone agree with the budget? No. But we had to enact a budget anyway.”

The resolution was first proposed by supervisor Snyder who, in the wake of the Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade, asked the board to consider passing a resolution requesting state lawmakers to support a right to choose and to fight against any attempt to change that at the state level.

Snyder, who was visibly upset by a previous motion to table earlier this month, reiterated her support for the resolution at Wednesday night’s meeting and called for its immediate passage.

In defending the use of a boilerplate resolution, she said that was done for “consistency” in messaging and wasn’t “political,” which drew a spontaneous roar of laughter and howls from the audience.

“It’s for consistency so they know where we stand in this part of Pennsylvania,” she said. “And please don’t think because your side is here that you speak for everybody. You don’t. Having said that I appreciate all your comments and I hope you appreciate ours as well.”

Supervisor Kyle Davis objected to the resolution at an earlier meeting arguing that the issue of abortion and a woman’s right is not within the purview of the board of supervisors under state law.

On Wednesday night, Davis reiterated his comments saying the board should not get involve with such a divisive issue. “I did not run for this office to have this battle. I ran for this office to stop over development like Arcadia and to support public safety, including our fire and police.

“It is not in our purview or the second class township code,” Davis continued. “I think we should stay out of it. I am not in favor of this resolution. We’re going to make people on one side of this argument really unhappy with us. I don’t want to do that. I did this job for Newtown, not my political agenda, aspirations or higher political causes. I did it for Newtown.”

His comments, both at the August meeting and on Wednesday struck a chord with many of the Pro Life supporters who spoke at the last two meetings. Many of them chastised the supervisors for only representing one segment of their constituency arguing, like Davis, that the issue was not in their purview to decide and not what they were elected to do.

Others spoke about their religious beliefs, some shared personal stories and one woman held up baby dolls as she spoke about the development of a baby in the womb.

“We keep hearing about choice,” she said. “What about the baby? The baby doesn’t have a voice. What about the baby’s voice? The baby didn’t ask to be conceived. The baby was conceived by the choice of the parents. Why should the baby have to suffer because of the choice of the parents.
The baby has the right to life.”

A priest from Saint Andrew Roman Catholic Church spoke graphically about the medical process used to abort a fetus.

Another Saint Andrew staff member commended the board for “hearing us out” on the issue, but called on the supervisors to withdraw the resolution. “It’s creating division in the community and I think you’re hurting our community by even having this conversation,” he said.

Not everyone who spoke was Pro Life. The supervisors also heard more than a half a dozen Pro Choice supporters who spoke in favor of a woman's right to choose, warned of a return to the days when an abortion was a dangerous procedure and encouraged the supervisors to pass the resolution.

The Resolution

WHEREAS, Newtown Township, Bucks County, Pennsylvania (the “Township”) recognizes that dignity and bodily autonomy are closely connected to the ability to access reproductive healthcare, including abortions, in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania; and

WHEREAS, the Supreme Court of the United States has overturned the 1973 ruling in Roe v. Wade, which previously prevented individual states from directly banning abortion; and

WHEREAS, the Township condemns any proposition by the Pennsylvania General Assembly or Congress of the United States that seeks to restrict access to abortions; and

WHEREAS, the Township honors a person’s right to bodily autonomy, dignity and control over private medical decisions; and

WHEREAS, access to safe and legal abortion is a deciding factor in long-term health, safety, and quality of life; and

WHEREAS, eliminating legal access to abortion has been empirically proven to dramatically increase the risk of death, bodily injury, and infertility, especially within low-income communities and communities of color; and

WHEREAS, The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and Physicians for Reproductive Health issued a joint statement in 2019 indicating that termination of a pregnancy in the form of abortion may be necessary to save a pregnant person’s life; and

WHEREAS, the Township recognizes that systematically stripping women of access to abortion violates basic human reproductive rights; and

WHEREAS, the Township is committed to supporting the health and well being of its residents; and WHEREAS, the Township supports codifying the right to an abortion into federal law.

NOW THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, the Board of Supervisors of Newtown Township, Bucks County, Pennsylvania hereby affirms and commits to supporting access to reproductive healthcare, including abortion, and condemning any act by the Pennsylvania General Assembly or Congress of the United States to restricting access to that care.