The two candidates for Pennsylvania Senate District 16 disagree on reproductive freedom, and there’s a recorded vote that shows it.
Mark Pinsley
Pinsley, the Democratic nominee, is endorsed by Planned Parenthood of Pennsylvania. He says the decision to continue a pregnancy belongs to a person and their doctor, not a politician. He would write reproductive freedom into Pennsylvania law and into the state constitution, where a future legislature can’t simply repeal it. A constitutional amendment has to pass the legislature two sessions in a row before voters decide — so this Senate seat matters for years.
He supports a viability standard:
- Before viability, the decision belongs to the patient and their doctor. The state can’t ban abortion.
- After viability, the state can regulate, but must allow exceptions to protect the mother’s life and health.
Viability — currently around 23 to 24 weeks — would be judged by a doctor based on the actual pregnancy, not set as a fixed number in law.
He would also protect access to contraception, expand access to IVF, write reproductive and adoption rights for LGBTQ+ Pennsylvanians into law, protect doctors in Pennsylvania from prosecution or losing their license, and have the state cover any hospital funding the federal government pulls over reproductive care.
More: What is Mark Pinsley’s position on reproductive freedom?
Jarrett Coleman
Coleman voted to table a constitutional amendment protecting reproductive freedom.
On January 11, 2023, Sen. Lisa Boscola offered an amendment to add reproductive freedom to the Pennsylvania Constitution — including the right to abortion, prenatal care, childbirth, care after birth, contraception, sterilization, miscarriage care and infertility treatment.
It wouldn’t have changed the constitution on its own. It would have let Pennsylvania voters decide on the ballot.
Coleman voted to table it. The motion passed 27–21. (Roll Call 16)
Tabling sets a measure aside without a vote on the merits, so no one has to go on record on the substance. The vote to table is the vote.
Notice what it covered: not just abortion and birth control, but prenatal care, childbirth, miscarriage care and infertility treatment — including care for people trying to have children.
It was one of three that day. Coleman also voted to table amendments that would have ended school property taxes on homes and farms (Roll Call 17) and expanded the constitution’s equal rights protections (Roll Call 18). All three passed 27–21 along party lines, and all three would have gone to voters.
What’s at stake
Pennsylvania’s constitution has no protection for reproductive freedom. What exists today is state law and court rulings, and both can change. A constitutional amendment is the only protection that survives a change in who’s in charge — and it takes two sessions in a row to pass.
This Senate seat is a vote on whether that process can even begin.
The general election is November 3, 2026.
