Pennsylvania governor vetoes bill outlawing abortions over Down syndrome

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf (D) on Thursday vetoed a bill that would have banned abortions over a diagnosis that a fetus has Down syndrome.

“This legislation is a restriction on women and medical professionals and interferes with women’s health care and the crucial decision-making between patients and their physicians,” Wolf wrote in an online statement. “Physicians and their patients must be able to make choices about medical procedures based on best practices and standards of care.”

He added that the bill’s requirements were “not consistent with the fundamental rights” guaranteed by the Constitution’s 14th Amendment.

Wolf, an open supporter of abortion rights, vetoed the measure a day after it passed through the GOP-controlled state legislature, The Associated Press reports.{mosads}

The state allows women to get abortions for any reason, except to select a gender, up to 24 weeks of pregnancy. If the bill had passed, it would have prohibited abortion in the event that a fetus was diagnosed with Down syndrome, except in cases of rape, incest or a medical emergency, the AP notes.

The report comes in the wake of several states passing restrictive anti-abortion laws in recent months amid a national debate over the Supreme Court’s landmark Roe v. Wade decision.

It also comes after a federal appeals court ruled in October that Ohio can’t enforce a law that would block doctors from performing abortions if the mother is seeking one because of a Down syndrome diagnosis.