Democrats use leaked SCOTUS opinion to push bill legalizing some abortions for all 9 months
An upper chamber rehash of the bill is unlikely, however, as the vote threshold set to force a vote on the bill sits at 60 — something the 50-50 Democrat majority in the Senate cannot do
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Democrats are pushing for another vote on a bill that would legalize some abortions through all nine months of a woman’s pregnancy.
Democratic senators on Tuesday pushed for another vote on the Women’s Health Protection Act.
The Women’s Health Protection Act passed through the House last year after Texas and other red states passed more restrictive abortion laws.
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U.S. Senator from Connecticut Richard Blumenthal give a briefing at Ukrainian Presidential office after their meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv, Ukraine, Monday, Jan. 17, 2022. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
Surrounded by several of his Senate colleagues, Senator Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., called for another vote in the upper chamber on the legislation.
An upper chamber rehash of the bill is unlikely, however, as the vote threshold set to force a vote on the bill sits at 60 — something the 50-50 Democrat majority in the Senate cannot do.
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That fact cued Capitol Hill progressives to call for the elimination of the filibuster so they could change the Senate rules to eliminate the political provision and pass the bill on simple majority lines, with Vice President Harris being the tie-breaker.
However, both Democrat Senators Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema stayed true to their word on not supporting killing the filibuster.
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Senator Kyrsten Sinema, a Democrat from Arizona, arrives to the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Wednesday, Jan. 19, 2022. Senate Democrats edged closer to handing the White House another defeat as the chamber took up voting-rights legislation with extraordinarily long odds in the evenly divided chamber. (Ting Shen/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Susan B. Anthony List president Marjorie Dannenfelser said the legislation being "extreme" and "deeply unpopular" is what led to the Senate sinking the bill the first time around.
"Pro-abortion Democrats will stop at nothing – even threatening judges and destroying foundational American institutions – to impose their radical agenda nationwide,"Dannenfelser told Fox News Digital in a Wednesday statement. "The Abortion on Demand Until Birth Act would enshrine a virtually unlimited abortion ‘right’ in federal law and block common ground pro-life laws around the country, including limits on late-term abortions when unborn babies feel pain, bans on lethal discrimination abortions, and many more."
"It failed in the Senate once already this year because it is extreme and deeply unpopular. The overwhelming majority of Americans support limits on abortion, but Biden-Schumer Democrats who call abortion ‘sacred’ want to block them," she continued. "The stakes of the Dobbs decision and midterm elections are higher than ever for countless unborn children, their mothers, and America."
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"While the abortion lobby led by Planned Parenthood spends $150 million to elect pro-abortion Democrats, our pro-life ground team is working to reach eight million battleground-state voters at their homes to educate them and hold extremists accountable," she added.
WASHINGTON, DC - OCTOBER 06: Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) speaks at a press conference outside his office on Capitol Hill on October 06, 2021 in Washington, DC. Manchin spoke on the debt limit and the infrastructure bill. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
The Women’s Health Protection Act would effectively codify Roe v. Wade, creating provisions requiring states to allow abortion access regardless of their laws while allowing women to abort a child so long as a single healthcare provider says the pregnancy is a risk to the mother's health or life, regardless of fetal viability.
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Additionally, the bill is loose with its definition of the term "health care provider," broadly giving the ability to recommend and perform abortions to midwives, nurse practitioners, and physicians assistants.
This means that a midwife, who may not be a licensed physician or not have experience performing complex surgical procedures, would be legally allowed to both recommend and provide the late-term abortion of a child so long as they deem the mother's health to be at risk.