[JURIST] The Pennsylvania Supreme Court [official website] on Wednesday upheld [opinion, PDF] a state law [Act 47] that bars an individual front bringing a “wrongful birth” lawsuit. With all justices joining the majority opinion, the court dismissed Rebecca and Lawerence Sernovitz’s claim. The couple challenged Act 47 after they claimed that medical misinformation provided by their doctor prevented them from seeking an abortion. Chief Justice Saylor, in writing the majority opinion, found that the statute is immune to attack since its adoption in 1988. Saylor defended Act 47 stating that “[t]he amount of time that has passed since enactment is a material consideration because the longer an act has been part of the statutory law and relied on by the public and the government, the more disruption to society and orderly governance is likely to follow from its invalidation.”

Abortion and reproductive rights [JURIST backgrounder] have been at the forefront of legal debate over the past several months in the US. Last month the US House of Representatives approved the Defund Planned Parenthood Act of 2015 [JURIST report], a bill that would cut all federal funding to women’s healthcare provider Planned Parenthood. Also in October the US District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee lifted [JURIST report] a temporary restraining order that limited the state in enforcing new abortion laws regarding licensing standards for clinics. In July Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker enacted the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act [JURIST report], limiting the ability of a woman to seek an abortion more than 20 weeks into her pregnancy.