WASHINGTON – House passed two bills Friday to secure access to post-Roe-era abortion as Democrats try to make clear distinctions with Republicans over the issue ahead of the midterm election campaign mandate.
A measure, which was passed mainly along party lines, from 222 to 205, would protect the right to travel across state borders for abortion services, with three Republicans joining Democrats in support of the measure.
A second measure, a version of which was passed in the House last year, would explicitly give health care providers the right to provide abortion services and their patients the right to obtain them, invalidating various restrictions. which were enacted following the Supreme Court. Court decision reversing Roe v. Wade and puts an end to the constitutional right to abortion. This second measure, the Women’s Health Protection Act, passed 219 to 210, also primarily on party lines, with one Democrat, Representative Henry Cuellar of Texas, voting with Republicans.
No bill has the votes to advance to the Senate. But Democrats applauded as the bills passed, leaving both sides on record in the face of the midterm legislature on an issue that has only widened the political divide.
“Freedom and justice and liberty are under attack right now because of a radical, right-wing and illegitimate majority of the Supreme Court and its extreme co-conspirators in the House of Representatives,” Rep. Hakeem Jeffries said. , a New York Democrat in the House. pis. “We will always stand up for these freedoms.”
Representative Anna Eshoo, a California Democrat, said the Supreme Court’s “devastating” decision to repeal Roe “has created a mosaic of states with different laws and restrictions that cause chaos and confusion in society.”
He added: “It’s a women’s hunt.”
Representative Diana Harshbarger, a Tennessee Republican, dismissed the legislation as a “deceptive plot to evade the authority of states to establish their own laws on abortion procedures.”
The action sparks debate in the campaign, where both sides hope to motivate voters by framing the election around one of the country’s longest-running cultural divisions.
Polls suggest support for abortion has increased as states have enacted laws restricting abortion, and Democrats hope to use it to motivate voters to choose officials who will enshrine access to abortion. in the law.
“We need two more pro-election senators so we can eliminate the filibuster and make this legislation the law of the land,” President Nancy Pelosi told the House on Friday.
Read more about the end of Roe v. Wade
“We offer hope to the American people who treasure our freedoms and who are overwhelmingly with us in our mission to defend them,” Ms. Hairy. “What do Republicans have in store then? Can’t you travel to buy a book? Can’t you travel to see a concert or a play?”
Democrats are also reacting to heavy pressure from progressives in their ranks outraged by the Supreme Court ruling last month and the slow response of their leaders to an opinion that had been expected for weeks.
Republicans hope to win a long-term struggle to change public perception about abortion. And they have been trying to paint Democratic measures as “radical” proposals that would allow late abortions on demand.
In reality, the Democratic bill allows for abortion after viability only in circumstances where a physician determines that the continuation of the pregnancy would pose a risk to the patient’s life or health.
“The two sides are guilty of saying goodbye to each other,” said Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, a Washington Republican who rejected the Women’s Health Protection Act as a “abortion on demand” bill. “.
“Science has evolved. I hope we learn from this and reject abortion; it’s unthinkable, ”he said.
While Democrats have been pushing for votes that will force Republicans to show where they are in the care of abortion and present them as outdated with the majority of Americans, Republican lawmakers have even accepted the debate. proposing legislation that would federalize some of the strictest anti-abortion measures. abortion laws passed in states like Texas.
On Wednesday, the Republican Study Committee, the largest caucus in Congress, passed the Heartbeat Protection Act, a bill that would ban abortions after a heartbeat is detected. This can be as early as six weeks, before many women know they are pregnant. The measure, opponents say, would mean an absolute ban on abortion.
Republican-led state legislatures have also pushed for plans that would allow private citizens to sue anyone who helps a resident of a state where abortion is prohibited from seeking an abortion in a state where it is still legal.
Representative Lizzie Fletcher, a Democrat from Texas, said her bill banning states from enacting or enforcing laws restricting travel to obtain an abortion was consistent with the constitutional right to interstate travel.
But Republicans criticized the bill as “part of an extreme agenda” to allow unrestricted abortion.
“It would prevent health professionals from reporting cases of child abuse, sexual abuse and neglect because they could be considered to delay or hinder access to abortion,” Ms. McMorris Rodgers.
The Senate, however, remains the main blockade on any legislative effort to codify Roe v. Wade in law, or even the most limited measure to protect the rights to travel to states where abortion is still legal.
All but two Republicans in the Senate oppose the right to abortion, leaving little hope that any bill can go ahead. With a Democrat, Sen. Joe Manchin III of West Virginia, also opposed, there is no realistic way for the legislation to win the 60 votes needed to clarify the Senate.
Senate Democrats tried and failed in May to pass the Women’s Health Protection Act. But Republicans and Mr. Manchin opposed it, blocking a debate and leaving the measure short even to the simple majority.
On Thursday, Senate Republicans prevented Democrats from accepting a Democratic bill to protect the right of women to travel across state borders to get attention on abortion.
“Does this child in the womb have the right to travel in its future?” Said Sen. James Lankford, an Oklahoma Republican. “Can they live?” He added: “There is also a child in this conversation.”
Still, many Democratic lawmakers focused their anger Friday on the Supreme Court rather than their Republican counterparts. Rep. Madeleine Dean, a Pennsylvania Democrat, said Republicans had “fixed” the Supreme Court, “with a few judges seated by an autocratic president.” He added: “They behave like theocrats.”