Pro-Life Republican Senator Blocks Democrat Bill to Protect Abortionists

National   |   Micaiah Bilger   |   Jul 15, 2022   |   4:48PM   |   Washington, DC

U.S. Sen. James Lankford blocked pro-abortion Democrats on Thursday from passing a bill to shield abortionists from prosecution in pro-life states that protect unborn babies.

The Hill reports the Oklahoma Republican objected when Democrat lawmakers requested unanimous support of their pro-abortion bill, the Freedom to Travel for Health Care Act.

“There’s a child in this conversation as well,” Lankford said on the Senate floor. “Does that child in the womb have the right to travel in their future? Do they get to live?”

Sponsored by U.S. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nevada, the legislation supposedly would ban pro-life states from punishing women for traveling to other states for abortions. However, pro-life laws do not punish women, and the pro-life movement clearly and repeatedly has said it opposes such punishments.

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Lankford slammed the bill as “misinformation,” calling it just another effort “to inflame” and raise “the what-ifs,” according to The Epoch Times.

“To be very clear: No state has banned interstate travel for adult women seeking to obtain an abortion. No state has done that,” he said.

Lankford said there are no plans to ban women from traveling to other states for abortions either. The one piece of travel-related legislation that pro-life lawmakers are considering would protect girls from being sneaked across state lines for abortions by human traffickers and abusers, he continued.

The real purpose of Cortez Masto’s legislation appears to be to protect abortionists and abortion activists. It would prevent the criminal prosecution of abortionists and those who help them if they travel to abort unborn babies in violation of state pro-life laws. It also would ban states from punishing pro-abortion groups that provide travel costs and arrangements for women in pro-life states to go to pro-abortion states to abort their unborn babies.

Lankford said the bill creates workarounds to shield the abortion industry and abortionists from laws that protect unborn babies’ lives.

“There is a child in this conversation, and maybe this body should pay attention to children as well, and to wonder what their future could be to travel in the days ahead …” he told the Senate. “I look forward to the day when we are talking more about that little girl and less about misinformation. I object.”

Afterward, Cortez Masto doubled down on the claim that pro-lifers just want to punish women.

“Today, Republicans blocked vital legislation to protect women seeking critical health care,” Cortez Masto said in a statement. “By objecting to my legislation, they’re allowing state legislators to reach across state lines to control not just what happens in their states, but what happens in every state across this country and to punish women for exercising their fundamental rights. It’s absolutely outrageous. I won’t stop fighting for women’s freedom.”

In May, pro-life leaders representing 70 organizations issued a joint statement opposing the punishment of women who have abortions. Pro-life advocates believe women are second victims of the abortion industry, often mislead, pressured or even forced to abort their unborn babies.

“So who should be held accountable? The answer is the abortionist — the one killing the baby in the first place,” the pro-life leaders wrote. “And if abortionists are held criminally liable for the babies they illegally kill under an abortion ban (and abortion pill sellers are held criminally liable for selling dangerous abortion drugs) then the supply of abortions ends.”

In the historic Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health ruling on June 24, the Supreme Court justices overturned Roe v. Wade and allowed states to protect unborn babies from abortion again. Thirteen already have done so, although some have been blocked by court orders, and more state are expected to enact pro-life laws in the coming weeks.

The Charlotte Lozier Institute estimates more than 120,000 unborn babies are being saved from abortion as a result of the pro-life laws currently in place.