The two lone pro-abortion Republicans in the U.S. Senate partnered with Democrats on Thursday to introduce a bill that would legalize the killing of unborn babies in abortions up to birth nationwide.
U.S. Sens. Murkowski, R-Alaska and Susan Collins, R-Maine, joined Democrat Sens. Tim Kaine, of Virginia, and Krysten Sinema, of Arizona, in calling for passage of Senate Bill 4688, or the Reproductive Freedom for All Act, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports.
“It’s up to Congress to help restore and protect women’s reproductive rights. I’m proud to reintroduce bipartisan legislation with my colleagues,” Murkowski said in a statement. “Unless we enshrine reproductive health care autonomy into law, we risk a future where generations of women will grow up with fewer rights than their mothers.”
The four lead sponsors are viewed as political moderates, and their bill is being presented as a compromise in comparison to the radical Women’s Health Protection Act, which Democrat leaders repeatedly have tried and failed to pass through Congress. Nicknamed the Abortion Without Limits Up to Birth Act, the legislation would force states to legalize abortions for basically any reason up to birth, end bans on sex-selection and taxpayer-funded abortions, and get rid of laws requiring parental consent and informed consent.
However, the new bipartisan legislation is nearly as extreme. It also would force states to legalize killing unborn babies for any reason up to viability as well as abortions up to birth in certain circumstances.
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Although lawmakers claim the bill allows “reasonable restrictions” on abortions once an unborn baby is viable, it actually does the opposite. The language says states must allow late-term abortions for the “health of the woman,” a broad exception that abortionists can use to justify basically any abortion. Some abortionists claim pregnancy itself is a health risk.
One difference from the Women’s Health Protection Act is that the bipartisan bill allows conscience protections for pro-life medical workers to remain intact.
Kaine touted the fact that the bill has both Democrats’ and Republicans’ support, commenting, “This legislation is proof that there is a bipartisan group in Congress that shares the same important goal of codifying the essential holdings of Roe v. Wade and protecting the right to choose.”
However, abortion has become an increasingly partisan issue, with most Republican lawmakers being pro-life and most Democrat lawmakers pro-abortion. The bill does not have a chance of passing the Republican-controlled U.S. House, and Republicans likely will filibuster the bill in the U.S. Senate, which Democrats control by only a narrow majority.
Meanwhile, two new polls show growing public support for legal protections for unborn babies. A Marist College poll found 69 percent of Americans support limiting or banning abortions, up from 62 percent in June. Another new poll from UMass Amherst found a 5-percent drop in those who say Congress should pass a law to make abortions legal nation-wide and a 6-percent increase in support for a national abortion ban, WCVB News reports.
Under Roe, more than 64 million unborn babies were aborted in the United States. The 1973 ruling forced states to legalize abortion on demand up to viability and allowed abortions up to birth. Now, because of the Dobbs v. Jackson ruling, states may protect unborn babies by banning abortions again, and more than a dozen have done so.
The Charlotte Lozier Institute estimates more than 110,000 unborn babies are being saved from abortion as a result of the pro-life laws currently in place.
