Pa.’s Attorney General is Defending the State’s Medicaid Abortion Ban in Court. Is He Required To?

By: Kate Huangpu

Christopher Carusone was quoted by Spotlight PA regarding Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday’s defense of the state’s Medicaid abortion funding ban. The article was subsequently republished by several Pennsylvania news outlets, including the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Times Leader, The Sentinel, and The Daily Item.

“Lawyers and legal experts who spoke to Spotlight PA generally agreed that a strict reading of the Commonwealth Attorneys Act requires Sunday to defend the law, but weren’t unified on whether he was also obligated to appeal.

“In my opinion he has to,” said Chris Carusone, an attorney who served as chief deputy attorney general under former GOP Gov. Tom Corbett, referring to the law’s requirement that attorneys general defend laws without “a controlling decision” from a court.

“In this case you have a Commonwealth Court decision that’s being appealed to the state Supreme Court, so you don’t have a controlling decision at the moment,” he said.”