Hoping to bank on outrage at a leaked U.S. Supreme Court draft ruling that allegedly overturns Roe v. Wade, U.S. Senate Democrat leaders are calling for a vote on a radical pro-abortion bill that would force states to legalize abortions up to birth.
The Washington Times reports Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer promised Tuesday to bring legislation to “codify Roe” to the floor for a vote, describing it as an “urgent” matter.
“This is as urgent and real as it gets …” Schumer said. “If this report is accurate, the Supreme Court is poised to inflict the greatest restriction of rights in the past 50 years, not just on women, but all Americans. Under this decision, our children will have [fewer] rights than their parents.”
In 1973, Roe v. Wade destroyed children’s rights before birth when it forced states to legalize abortions up to viability and allowed abortions up to birth. Since then, more than 63 million unborn babies and hundreds of mothers have died in supposedly “safe, legal” abortions.
The so-called Women’s Health Protection Act that Democrats want to pass would force states to legalize the killing of unborn babies for basically any reason up to birth even if Roe is overturned.
The bill would get rid of bans on partial-birth abortions, late-term abortions, sex-selection abortions and taxpayer-funded abortions. Laws that protect women and girls would be eliminated, too, including parental consent for minors and informed consent laws that ensure mothers receive basic facts about their unborn baby’s development before going through with an abortion.
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The pro-abortion bill failed to advance in the Senate in February, and it is unlikely to pass now. But Democrat leaders are calling for a vote anyway.
On Tuesday, they held a press conference on the Capitol steps, demanding that Congress “codify Roe” into federal law, reports John McCormack at National Review. Several Democrat U.S. Senate candidates also issued statements in support of the bill, including Tom Nelson and Mandela Barnes of Wisconsin, John Fetterman of Pennsylvania and Tim Ryan of Ohio, according to the report.
“It is our intention for the Senate to hold a vote on legislation to codify the right to an abortion in law,” Schumer said without mentioning any specific timeline, Axios reports.
The Democrat leader, who publicly threatened two Supreme Court justices in 2020 if they dared to overturn Roe, also urged Americans to vote for pro-abortion Democrats in the midterm elections, saying Republicans are on “the wrong side of the American people.”
But the opposite is true. Polls consistently show that Americans oppose what Roe v. Wade does: It forces states to legalize abortions without restriction up to viability and allow states to legalize abortions up to birth.
A January poll from Marist University found that only 36 percent of Americans want abortions to remain legal without limits, while 61 percent want states to be allowed to protect unborn babies from abortion again. A 2021 Associated Press poll also found strong public opposition to abortions in the second and third trimesters.
Other polls show support for heartbeat laws, which protect unborn babies from abortion as soon as their heartbeat is detectable, about six weeks of pregnancy. Polls also have found support for pro-life laws among women and low-income Americans.
Unborn babies could be protected from abortion in more than half the country if the U.S. Supreme Court overturns Roe this summer. Late Monday, Politico reported about a leaked draft opinion from the court that overturns the 1973 ruling and returns the abortion issue to the states.
Chief Justice John Roberts later confirmed the draft is real but cautioned that the document “does not represent a decision by the Court or the final position of any member.” The Supreme Court is expected to issue a ruling on the abortion case Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health sometime this summer, likely in June.
Without Roe, researchers predict as many as 26 states would ban abortions and save hundreds of thousands of unborn babies’ lives.
