Abortion fight comes to Senate, House floors
by Joseph Choi - 07/17/22 1:06 PM ET
Legislative battles over abortion access are heating up in the House and Senate as Democrats look to raise pressure on Republicans.
A round of bills aimed at protecting abortion access that were introduced by Democrats were considered on Capitol Hill last week, leading to the first instances of lawmakers butting heads over such legislation since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last month.
Though the bills are unlikely to pass in the evenly divided Senate, where they would require bipartisan support to overcome the legislative filibuster, Democrats are pushing for action in the aftermath of the court’s decision and seeking to get Republican members of Congress on the record objecting to legislation on the issue in an apparent attempt to paint GOP lawmakers as going to extremes to stop abortions.
Republicans have in turn accused Democrats of fearmongering when they argue that the GOP will seek to block access to contraception and try to enact a nationwide abortion ban.
A bill that would codify protections for abortion access into federal law — the Women’s Health Protection Act — was passed by the House 219-209 almost entirely along party lines on Friday after previously being approved by the chamber in September. Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar (Texas) voted against the measure, along with all Republican members apart from two who did not vote.
Republican lawmakers lambasted the legislation as a form of government overreach during debate over it on Friday, with several members referring to it as the “abortion on demand until birth act.” Republican Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (Wash.) argued it stripped away state laws that protected women from coercion to terminate their pregnancies and claimed it would force physicians to perform abortions.
The House also on Friday passed a bill 223-205 that would protect out-of-state travel for abortion services, with three Republicans — Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick (Pa.), Adam Kinzinger (Ill.) and Fred Upton (Mich.) — joining Democrats in voting for the measure.
Democratic lawmakers slammed their GOP colleagues for opposing the bill.
“It is absolutely important to get Republicans on the record to how far they will go to restrict a woman’s right,” Rep. Judy Chu (D-Calif.) told The Hill. “Are they really saying that women should not be allowed to travel to another state to get a medical procedure?”
Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) communications director Henry Connelly tweeted shortly after the vote, “Genuinely very scary that 205 House Republicans just voted to enable states to arrest, fine or sue women for traveling to get an abortion *even where it is still legal.*”
GOP opposition means both bills are unlikely to pass in the evenly divided Senate, where they will need 60 votes to overcome the filibuster. The upper chamber has already failed to pass the Women’s Health Protection Act twice since September, and this week a Republican senator blocked a separate bill seeking to protect those traveling across state lines to get abortions.
Democratic senators on Tuesday unveiled legislation that would bar state legislatures from banning or restricting interstate travel to obtain abortions in states where they are still allowed. The bill was quickly brought up for a unanimous consent vote on the Senate floor just days after it was introduced, only to be blocked by Republican Sen. James Lankford (Okla.).
Lankford sought to center the debate over the bill on the life of the fetus, saying in remarks opposing the legislation, “The conversation today is not just about women. There are two people in this conversation — a child with 10 fingers and 10 toes and a beating heart and DNA that is uniquely different than mom’s DNA or the dad’s DNA.”
Democratic lawmakers, in contrast, looked to emphasize the rights of pregnant people.
more
https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/3562671-abortion-fight-comes-to-senate-house-floors/
