WASHINGTON, D.C. (LifeSiteNews) – Democrat legislation to ensure abortion seekers can travel from pro-life states to pro-“choice” ones to dispose of their babies failed in the U.S. Senate Thursday but passed the U.S. House Friday, offering another preview of things to come depending on the outcome of this fall’s midterm congressional elections.
The Washington Examiner reports that Senate Democrats proposed the so-called Freedom to Travel for Health Care Act, which would ensure women’s legal ability to “travel freely and voluntarily among the several states” for the purpose of abortion, and ensure abortionists who abort in a state where the procedure is legal can’t be punished for doing so on a women from a state where it isn’t.
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Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Patty Murray (D-WA), and Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV) called for the bill to be passed by unanimous consent. Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) objected, so the bill died. Given the predictability of at least one Republican objecting, and the certainty a traditional vote on the bill would have been unable to clear the 60-vote filibuster threshold, it appears the bill was a symbolic gesture.
The next day, CBS News reports, House Democrats voted 223-205 to pass a similar measure, the Ensuring Access to Abortion Act, as well as the the so-called Women’s Health Protection Act (WHPA), by a narrower tally of 219-210.
The WHPA, which Democrats have unsuccessfully pushed for years and which failed to pass the Senate as recently as May, establishes a federal statutory right to perform and obtain abortions, including after fetal viability (under the broad cover of “health”), and specifically forbids states from subjecting abortion to ultrasound requirements (even though these are standard to discern fetal age), mandatory waiting periods, informed-consent requirements, and other health and safety regulations, such as admitting privileges.
The WHPA also protects so-called “webcam” abortions (i.e., dispensing abortion pills without an in-person doctor’s visit), forbids banning abortions on the basis of a baby’s race, sex, or disability, and forbids banning particular techniques such as dilation and evacuation (D&E) procedures, better known as “dismemberment” abortions because they entail literally ripping unborn babies apart in the womb, then removing them from the uterus limb by limb.
Roe v. Wade’s’ overturn sparked the activation of numerous pre-Roe abortion bans that had gone unenforced for decades, as well as more recent pro-life laws that had been blocked by courts, and trigger laws designed not to take effect until Roe was reversed. Across the country, abortion giant Planned Parenthood has suspended abortions and/or closed locations in reaction to the ruling, and pro-life attorneys general have declared their intentions to enforce their states’ duly-enacted abortion prohibitions.
But leftists prosecutors in dozens of localities have vowed not to enforce such laws, ensuring that work and debate will continue over the prospect of banning abortion nationally. Pro-abortion activists’ emphasis on supporting abortion travel also presents a challenge to pro-life policymakers, though groups such as the Thomas More Society and National Association of Christian Lawmakers are currently exploring potential solutions.
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In the meantime, this week’s votes offer a preview of what Democrats intend to do should they win more Senate seats in November.
“Ultimately, Congress is going to have to act to codify Roe into federal law,” President Joe Biden declared last week. “We need two additional pro-choice senators and a pro-choice House to codify Roe as federal law,” the president said. “Your vote can make that a reality.”