Harrisburg, Pennsylvania - A Pennsylvania court on Monday struck down a law banning the use of state Medicaid funds to cover abortion care.

In a 4-3 decision, the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court recognized a "fundamental right to reproductive autonomy" in the state constitution.

The court also found that the Medicaid funding restriction in the 1982 Abortion Control Act was an unconstitutional "sex-based distinction."

"We agree with providers that recognizing this fundamental right, as the plurality did, is necessary to restrict state government to its proper sphere, thus protecting our liberty," Judge Matthew Wolf wrote for the majority.

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"This will mean that the state will face judicial scrutiny of its attempts to coerce reproductive choice. Those choices are the people's, not the government's."

Monday's ruling came nearly four years after the US Supreme Court struck down federal Roe v. Wade protections.

Planned Parenthood and abortion clinic operators sued Pennsylvania over the Medicaid funding restrictions back in 2019, arguing that they violated low-income women's constitutional right to equal protection.

"Today's ruling stops a discriminatory law that has harmed generations of Pennsylvanians," Susan Frietsche, executive director of the Women's Law Project, said in a statement shared on Instagram.

"The Commonwealth Court today recognizes that the guarantees of equality in our state constitution would be a hollow promise if women and birthing people did not possess the ability to control their destiny."

"A woman's access to reproductive care should never be determined by her income. We're going to keep it that way here in Pennsylvania – and continue standing up for the freedom to choose," Governor Josh Shapiro posted on X.