Senate Republicans, with the help of Democrat Senator Joe Manchin, voted today to defeat a Democrat bill that would overturn every pro-life law in America and legalize abortions up to birth.
Although Americans are in favor of overturning Roe and 11 recent polls show Americans are pro-life on abortion, Democrats pushed the radical bill anyway.
Lawmakers voted 49-51 against cloture — against ending debate and allowing a vote on the the misnamed Women’s Health Protection Act. As a result the filibuster against the radical pro-abortion legislation was sustained and the bill is defeated, as 60 votes were necessary to move ahead to a vote on the bill.
All Republicans voted pro-life against cloture on the radical pro-abortion bill and all Democrats voted pro-abortion for cloture, except for Manchin.
Democrat leaders and many mainstream news outlets portray the bill as an effort to simply “codify the right to an abortion” in the U.S. in response to the likelihood that the Supreme Court will overturn Roe v. Wade later this year. The bill would:
- Eliminate all state and federal parental consent laws in relation to abortion
- Eliminate all state informed consent laws, including those that allow women to view an ultrasound prior to abortion
- Prevent states from passing laws to protect babies at 20 weeks, thereby joining countries like North Korea, China, Vietnam, Singapore, Canada, and the Netherlands in not protecting unborn children later in development
- Force doctors and nurses opposed to abortion to lose their jobs, and Catholic hospitals could lose public funds unless they perform abortions
- Eliminate decades-long limitations on direct taxpayer funding of abortion – including the popular Hyde Amendment, which has saved more than 2 million lives since enacted
In short, the legislation would overturn all federal and state pro-life laws and make it illegal for elected officials to even introduce pro-life legislation.
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Bans on partial-birth abortions, sex-selection abortions and taxpayer-funded abortions would be gone if the bill passes. 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.
Senator Thom Tillis explained why he was voting against the measure.
“Democrats are pushing radical legislation that would go beyond Roe v. Wade and allow abortion up until the moment of birth, a policy that the vast majority of North Carolinians, including myself, are fundamentally opposed to. That is why today I voted against their radical bill,” he said.
Doctor Roger Marshall, a senator from Kansas who has delivered 5,000 babies, said he voted against what he called a “dangerous pro-abortion measure that attacks the lives of unborn children and jeopardizes the health of mothers.:
“This bill is the most egregious, horrific attack on the lives of unborn children and the health of moms in American history,” Senator Marshall said. “If Democrats had their way, these babies that we delivered over a decade ago could have been aborted the moment prior to this c-section. While the overturning of Roe vs Wade simply returns this emotional issue to the states, to the elected voice of the people, this bill would invalidate any and all state laws that protect the unborn child and the health and well-being of the mom.”
Senator Ben Sasse, an outspoken pro-life advocate, said the bill proves Democrats aren’t reasonable on abortion.
“The legislation before us today would make our laws even more extreme. Depending on how you count, we have the fourth to seven most extreme pro-abortion laws of any of the 200 nations on earth, and the legislation before the Senate today would make the US position even more extreme,” he said.
This bill today is ugly, winner takes all politics. It is full of aggressive, pro-abortion provisions. Let’s consider just a few:
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One, it would formally create a national right to abortion up until the moment of birth in all 50 states, and it would undo even state-based partial birth abortion bans.
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Two, today’s legislation would prohibit states from requiring parental consent to perform abortions on a child.
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Three, it would prohibit states from passing any laws to ban sex selective abortions. It would ban any laws that states would have to try to prevent sex selection abortions.
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It would create a right for non-doctors to perform abortions, putting women at severe risk of complications and botched procedures.
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And it would remove conscience protections that keep Americans from being forced to perform or fund abortions if they have moral objections. Think about that. It would force Catholic hospitals to perform abortions. That’s new. That’s gross.
The bill passed the House last year, but Democrats don’t have the votes to get past the filibuster in the Senate.
Pro-life leaders say the bill would go beyond even Roe by nullifying state laws that protect unborn babies from late-term and partial-birth abortions.
“This radical ‘Abortion Until Birth Act’ would block popular pro-life laws around the country, including limits on late-term abortions when unborn babies feel pain, and effectively enshrine an unlimited abortion ‘right’ in federal law,” said Susan B. Anthony List President Marjorie Dannenfelser. “Pro-abortion Democrats are desperate to stop the pro-life momentum demonstrated by pro-life laws advancing in state legislatures nationwide.”
Even among many Democrat voters, the bill is too extreme. Polls consistently show that a strong majority of Americans oppose late-term abortions and taxpayer-funded abortions. A 2022 Marist poll found that just 36 percent of Americans believe abortions should be legal without any restrictions. Additionally, 73 percent oppose using tax dollars to fund abortions.
Similarly, a 2021 Associated Press poll found that 65 percent believe second-trimester abortions should be illegal and 80 percent believe they should be illegal in the third trimester.
And a Gallup poll last year found a majority of Americans want all or most abortions made illegal.
