A Pennsylvania appellate court has ruled that the state's constitution guarantees a right to abortion, striking down a 1982 law that barred the use of state Medicaid funds (the public health insurance programme for low-income residents) to cover abortion costs. The divided seven-judge panel of the commonwealth court found that the funding restriction violated the equal protection rights of low-income women, marking the first time abortion access has been explicitly protected under the Pennsylvania constitution. The ruling, which follows the US Supreme Court's 2022 overturning of Roe v Wade, could still be appealed to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, and the office of Republican attorney general David Sunday said it was reviewing the decision.