Pennsylvania’s Shapiro Seeks COVID-19-Style Lockdown Powers

Originally published by The Washington Times.

Few people want to relive the lockdowns of the COVID-19 pandemic. But Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, who leads the nation’s largest swing state and often hints at his presidential ambitions, seems nostalgic for the draconian policies that defined the era.

After suffering a year of pandemic lockdowns, Pennsylvanians said, “Never again.” In 2021, voters passed two amendments that capped the governor’s emergency declarations at 21 days and gave the legislature the power to end or extend them without his signature. It was a rare, resounding statement that the good people of our great commonwealth do not want a single officeholder governing by decree.

However, Shapiro wants to circumvent that mandate. His administration has quietly advanced 500 pages of sweeping changes to Pennsylvania’s health code, claiming expansive disease-control powers through executive regulation, without the legislature’s approval. The new regulations even replace the words “mother” and “woman” with “postpartum individual” and “birthing individual.”

Read more at The Washington Times.