House passes far-reaching anti-abortion bill
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| Rep. Trent Franks, R-Ariz., arrives on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, June 18, 2013, at House Judiciary Committee hearing to discuss the Strengthen and Fortify Enforcement Act. Republicans in the House of Representatives on Tuesday make their most concerted effort of the year to change U.S. abortion law with legislation that would ban almost all abortions after a fetus reaches the age of 20 weeks. |
WASHINGTON
(AP) -- The Republican-led House on Tuesday passed a far-reaching
anti-abortion bill that conservatives saw as a milestone in their
40-year campaign against legalized abortion and Democrats condemned as
yet another example of the GOP war on women.
The
legislation, sparked by the murder conviction of a Philadelphia
late-term abortion provider, would restrict almost all abortions to the
first 20 weeks after conception, defying laws in most states that allow
abortions up to when the fetus becomes viable, usually considered to be
around 24 weeks.
It mirrors 20-week abortion
ban laws passed by some states, and lays further groundwork for the
ongoing legal battle that abortion foes hope will eventually result in
forcing the Supreme Court to reconsider the 1973 Supreme Court decision,
Roe v. Wade, that made abortion legal.
It passed 228-196, with 6 Democrats voting for it and 6 Republicans voting against it.
In
the short term, the bill will go nowhere. The Democratic-controlled
Senate will ignore it and the White House says the president would veto
it if it ever reached his desk. The White House said the measure was
"an assault on a woman's right to choose" and "a direct challenge to Roe
v. Wade."
But it was a banner day for social
conservatives who have generally seen their priorities overshadowed by
economic and budgetary issues since Republicans recaptured the House in
2010.
Penny Nance, president of Concerned
Women for America, called it "the most important pro-life bill to be
considered by the U.S. Congress in the last 10 years."
Marjorie
Dannenfeiser, president of the Susan B. Anthony List - a group that
seeks to eliminate abortion - said the legislation differed
significantly from past abortion measures in that it restricts, rather
than merely controls, the abortion procedure.
Democrats
chided Republicans for taking up a dead-end abortion bill when Congress
is doing little to promote jobs and economic growth. Democratic leader
Nancy Pelosi called it "yet another Republican attempt to endanger
women. It is disrespectful to women. It is unsafe for families and it is
unconstitutional."
Democrats also said the
decision by GOP leaders to appease their restless base with the abortion
vote could backfire on Republican efforts to improve their standing
among women.
"They are going down the same
road that helped women elect Barack Obama president of the United
States," said Eleanor Holmes Norton, the District of Columbia's delegate
to the House. The bill is so egregious to women, said Rep. Louise
Slaughter, D-N.Y., that women are reminded that "the last possible thing
they ever want to do is leave their health policy to these men in blue
suits and red ties."
Democrats repeatedly
pointed out that all 23 Republicans on the Judiciary Committee that
approved the measure last week on a party-line vote are men.
Republicans
countered by assigning women to conspicuous roles in managing the bill
on the House floor and presiding over the chamber. Republican women were
prominent among those speaking in favor of the legislation.
The
bill, said Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., who was assigned to manage
the bill despite not being on the Judiciary Committee, would "send the
clearest possible message to the American people that we do not support
more Gosnell-like abortions."
The Republican
leadership gave the green light to the abortion bill after social
conservatives coalesced around the case of Kermit Gosnell, the
Philadelphia abortion doctor who was recently sentenced to life in
prison for what prosecutors said was the murder of three babies
delivered alive. Abortion foes said it exemplified the inhumanity of
late-term abortions.
"After this Kermit
Gosnell trial, (and) some of the horrific acts that were going on, the
vast majority of the American people believe in the substance of this
bill, and so do I," said House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio.
Absent
from the debate was the bill's main sponsor, Rep. Trent Franks,
R-Ariz., who last week sparked a controversy by saying that rape
resulted in few pregnancies.
After Franks'
remark, which he later modified, Republicans quietly altered the bill to
include an exception to the 20-week ban for instances of rape and
incest. Democrats still balked, saying the exception would require a
woman to prove that she had reported the rape to authorities.
The
bill has an exception when a physical condition threatens the life of
the mother, but Democratic efforts to include other health exceptions
were rebuffed.
The legislation would ban abortions that take place 20 weeks after conception, which is equivalent to 22 weeks of pregnancy.
Some
10 states have passed laws similar to the House bill, and several are
facing court challenges. Last month a federal court struck down as
unconstitutional Arizona's law, which differs slightly in banning
abortion 20 weeks after pregnancy rather than conception.
According
to the Guttmacher Institute, a New York-based reproductive health
research organization that supports abortion rights, in 2009, 1.3
percent of the 1.2 million abortions in the country, about 15,600,
occurred 20 weeks after the fetus was conceived.
Supporters
of the legislation also contended that fetuses can feel pain after
about 20 weeks, and the bill cites extensively from studies agreeing
with that conclusion. Opponents say such findings are inconclusive.
Pro-choice
groups argued that the 20-week ban, in addition to being
unconstitutional, would affect women just at the point of learning of a
fetal anomaly or determining that the pregnancy could put the mother's
life in danger.
