Abortion Rights as the New Frontline: Pennsylvania Dems Target Suburban Women to Hold the House

Pennsylvania Democrats believe their path to expanding power in the state Legislature runs through the suburbs — and they’re hammering the importance of protecting reproductive rights to pull it off.

Two and a half years after Dobbs, ensuring that voters continue to be swayed by abortion messaging is critical for Democrats in Harrisburg, where the party holds a single-seat majority in the state House and Republicans control the Senate.

That’s why Democrats are spending a record amount on abortion-focused campaign ads and knocking on thousands of doors making the case for protecting reproductive rights.

While Democrats are running on abortion throughout the country, Pennsylvania is the only state with a divided Legislature, underscoring its status as a coveted battleground.

Democrats are targeting suburban women outside Philadelphia and Pittsburgh as the linchpin of their coalition for holding the state House and gaining seats in the Senate. Their argument rests on being the backstop against Republican attempts to tighten Pennsylvania’s abortion laws, which currently allow the procedure up to 24 weeks of pregnancy.

But those relatively robust protections could undermine the urgency of the issue.

“In Pennsylvania, it’s not like Tennessee,” said Anna Thomas, a Democratic challenger in a competitive House district held by a Republican in the Lehigh Valley. “It’s not like that many people know someone who has had to leave the state to get medical care. Making sure they understand the risk is a huge part of what we have to do to get out the vote.”

Democrats are confident that — as in 2022, when they flipped the state House — the post-election autopsies will credit abortion as the reason they won on Election Day.

They see that message as crucial in leveraging the suburbs for Democrats at every level of the ticket, from Vice President Kamala Harris to state legislative candidates in key battlegrounds like Arizona, Michigan and Pennsylvania.