U.S. Senators Susan Collins (R-ME) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) introduced legislation in February that would codify the rights established by Roe v. Wade (1973) and affirmed by Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992), but Democratic lawmakers refused to pass the bill because they want to keep abortion in peril because it will benefit them politically.
Democratic lawmakers have a better chance of winning the election in November if the race is a referendum on abortion rather than economic issues, on which inflation and their flagging commitment to keeping campaign promises have voters feeling insecure.
Collins and Murkowski also filed their bill, titled the Reproductive Choice Act (RCA), as an amendment to the Women’s Health Protection Act (WHPA), which the Senate failed to bring up for a vote.
Senate Democrats’ attempt to codify Roe v. Wade into federal law failed May 11, 2022, with one of their own, Senator Joe Manchin, joining every single Republican to stop the legislation from being called for a vote.
“I support the abortion rights established by Roe v. Wade and affirmed by Planned Parenthood v. Casey,” said Collins. “Our legislation would enshrine these important protections into law without undercutting statutes that have been in place for decades and provide basic conscience protections that are relied upon by health care providers who have religious objections to performing abortions.
After the Senate failed to advance their broad abortion-rights bill, Collins said she was working with Sen. Tim Kaine and other senators on a new proposal that would codify two major abortion decisions by the Supreme Court into law.
Collins said her goal is to ensure that if the Supreme Court does rule to overturn Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey that there would be no change in a woman’s right to choose.
Democratic leaders have stiff-armed the bill Collins introduced despite some members of their caucus being interested in having at least a discussion about a compromise effort that could get as many as 52 Senate votes.
“I think it might have some value to the court that’s still grappling with these questions to know that not only 70-plus percent of the American public supports Roe v. Wade but a bipartisan majority in the Senate does as well,” said Kaine.
“I have always supported a woman’s right to choose, the precedents established by Roe v. Wade, and the limitations the Supreme Court has placed on laws regarding abortion services,” Murkowski said. “With the Supreme Court set to rule on an abortion-related case later this year, we should codify current protections into law so that women can be confident their reproductive freedoms will not be abruptly reduced or eliminated.”
“I have long supported a woman’s right to choose, but my position is not without limits, and this partisan Women’s Health Protection Act simply goes too far. It would broadly supersede state laws and infringe on Americans’ religious freedoms,” Murkowski said.
The fact that Schumer limited the choice to his bill or nothing at all, shows how insincere Democrats are about protecting women’s rights.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi affirmed her support for Rep. Henry Cuellar, the only anti-abortion Democrat in the U.S. House, after he was forced into a primary runoff against Jessica Cisneros, the progressive challenger who lost by a small margin in 2020.
“If Democrats in Congress fulfilled their promise and protected the right to choose, then they could not raise millions of dollars off the abortion issue,” said women’s rights advocate Lisa McCormick. “That is why they acted instead to keep the controversy alive by pursuing the sure-to-fail Women’s Health Protection Act, which was a stunt designed to cheat Americans out of their freedom and their money.”
McCormick said insincerity and ineffectiveness are fatal flaws that the
“Failing to conduct any outreach and reducing this important issue to nothing more than a designed-to-fail show vote is a disservice to women across America,” Murkowski said.
Collins, Murkowski, and Manchin say the Women’s Health Protection Act goes far beyond what is necessary to codify the abortion rights in Roe and Casey.
For example, the Democratic measure would supersede all other federal and state laws, including the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), which both Collins and Murkowski support because it provides critical protections for religious liberties.
Congress has never before adopted legislation that contains an exemption to this religious liberty law, which was authored by Majority Leader Chick Schumer when he served in the House and passed by overwhelming, bipartisan margins in 1993.
The Democratic bill’s overly broad language far exceeds Roe by striking down state laws such as those that require certain materials to be given to the patient, prohibit sex-based abortions, or require parental or guardian notification for minors seeking an abortion.
By contrast, the measure proposed by the two pro-choice Republicans closely tracks the Supreme Court’s decisions in Roe and Casey and would provide reassurance to women that the reproductive rights they have relied on for nearly 50 years will continue to be the law of the land. It does not include any of the extraneous and over-reaching provisions in WHPA.
In particular, the Collins proposal would prohibit states from imposing an “undue burden” on the ability of a woman to choose whether or not to terminate a pregnancy prior to fetal viability.
The Republican’s bill would continue to allow states to enact regulations to further the health or safety of a woman seeking to terminate a pregnancy while clarifying that unnecessary health regulations that have the purpose or effect of presenting a “substantial obstacle” to a woman seeking to terminate a pregnancy constitute an “undue burden”;
The Republican’s bill would also permit states to restrict the ability to terminate a pregnancy after fetal viability, except when necessary to preserve the life or health of a woman as consistent with Roe and Casey.
The Republican’s bill would not have any effect on laws regarding conscience protections, including laws that protect health care providers who refuse to provide abortions for moral or religious reasons.
Collins, Murkowski and Manchin have been painted as outliers but the Democratic establishment is giving up practical success in exchange for an election issue.
The Republican’s bill would prevent thirteen states from banning abortion. Arkansas, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, and Wyoming have trigger laws that would automatically ban abortion in the first and second trimesters if the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.