Senate Democrats held a hearing Wednesday blasting the new Texas heartbeat law and the U.S. Supreme Court justices who refused to temporarily block it earlier this month.
Pro-life Republican lawmakers responded by accusing Democrats of using “dishonest rhetoric” to politicize the high court, The Washington Times reports.
The hearing took place before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee as pro-abortion groups pressure Democrats to pack the court, eliminate the filibuster and pass radical pro-abortion laws legalizing the killing of unborn babies for basically any reason up to birth nation-wide.
At the beginning of the hearing, Senate Democrat leaders criticized the Supreme Court for putting “certain ideological preferences” above the U.S. Constitution, UPI reports.
“The Supreme Court has now shown that it is willing to allow even facially unconstitutional laws to take effect when the laws align with certain ideological preferences,” said U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Illinois, who chairs the committee.
He slammed the court for allowing the “constitutional rights for millions of Americans” to be stripped away, referring to its Sept. 1 decision not to temporarily block the Texas heartbeat law.
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The pro-life law went into effect Sept. 1, prohibiting abortions once an unborn baby’s heartbeat is detectable, about six weeks of pregnancy. Unique from other states, the Texas law includes a private enforcement mechanism that allows people to file lawsuits against abortionists who violate the law and those who help them.
Texas is the first state to be allowed to enforce a heartbeat law, and pro-life leaders estimate as many as 2,700 babies have been saved from abortion so far.
“It is already too late for many Texans whose rights have been suspended, and who have been forced to leave the state to seek reproductive health care the Constitution already guarantees them,” Durbin said. “But it is not too late for the rest of the country and the court to change course.”
But Republican U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said Democrat leaders are the ones trying to politicize the Supreme Court at the bidding of leftist “dark money” groups, according to the Times.
“This campaign against the court — and against individual justices — has hurt the public. The dishonest rhetoric doesn’t help the American people understand the issues,” Grassley said.
U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, also accused Democrats and leftist groups of trying to interfere with the independence of the judiciary branch, the report continues.
“This is part of a concerted effort … on the part of our Democratic colleagues to attack judicial independence,” Cornyn said. “This is part of a concerted effort to intimidate and bully members of the Supreme Court.”
Among other things, Senate Democrats criticized what they called a “shadow docket,” or an emergency ruling that a court issues before hearing oral arguments about a case. The Supreme Court recently did this with the Texas heartbeat law; however, the justices stated that their ruling was temporary and should not be interpreted as their final say on the constitutionality of the pro-life law.
Testifying before the committee Wednesday, Alabama Solicitor General Edmund LaCour Jr. said such actions are normal in court.
“These proceedings hardly warrant such a nefarious name,” LaCour said.
Pro-abortion Democrat leaders are the ones trying to influence and undermine the authority of the high court to fit with their radical agenda and strip away unborn babies’ right to life. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer even openly threatened two Supreme Court justices by name in 2020 while warning them not to restrict abortions.
“You have released the whirlwind and you will pay the price. You won’t know what hit you if you go through with these awful decisions,” Schumer said, naming Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, both appointed by President Donald Trump.
In response, Chief Justice John Roberts issued a statement condemning Schumer’s “dangerous” and “threatening statements.”
Pro-life leader Marjorie Dannenfelser said the hearing shows how desperate Democrat leaders are to grab power from American voters.
“Desperate to stop pro-life progress in America, Democrats in Washington are pulling out all the stops to cast doubt on the right of the people to enact and enforce laws through their duly-elected state lawmakers,” said Dannenfelser, president of the Susan B. Anthony List.
She thanked the lone Democrat U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, of West Virginia, for promising to vote against attempts to weaken or destroy the filibuster and plans to force taxpayers to pay for abortions.
On Dec. 1, the Supreme Court is scheduled to hear oral arguments in a major abortion case from Mississippi. At issue in the case is the question of “whether all pre-viability prohibitions on elective abortion are unconstitutional.” Pro-life advocates hope the justices will overturn Roe v. Wade and allow states to protect unborn babies from abortion again.
Since Roe, nearly 63 million unborn babies have been legally aborted in the U.S. Polls consistently show that a strong majority of Americans oppose abortions in the second and third trimesters and many support heartbeat laws that protect unborn babies at their earliest stage of life.
