Senate Democrats Prepare to Back Themselves into a Corner on Abortion

Political News

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) looks on during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., December 15, 2021. (Elizabeth Frantz/Reuters)

Yesterday, Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) took the first steps toward a vote on the Women’s Health Protection Act, a radically pro-abortion bill that aims to invalidate nearly every pro-life state law in the country.

The same measure has already passed the House on a nearly party-line vote: One Democrat, Henry Cueller of Texas, voted against it. Schumer’s long delay in bringing up the bill in the Senate suggested to some observers that he intended to let it die, knowing that he has nowhere near the 60 votes he needs to pass it. But it appears that the majority leader is gearing up for yet another vote on a bill that’s dead on arrival — and in the process he’ll force vulnerable members of his  own caucus to go on the record supporting a truly extreme piece of legislation.

The WHPA, backed by the Biden administration, effectively codifies abortion on demand throughout birth, going so far as to nullify state pro-life laws, including those that protect unborn children after they’re able to survive outside the womb. The bill would forbid states from enacting even the most modest of abortion regulations such as informed-consent laws, waiting periods, ultrasound requirements, and bans on abortions chosen for discriminatory reasons (such as the unborn child’s sex or diagnosis with a disability).

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