WASHINGTON — After getting the stamp of approval from the House earlier this week, identical legislation that would ban abortions after a woman is five months’ pregnant was introduced in the Senate Thursday. It already has the backing of President Donald Trump.
But the measure needs 60 votes to block a likely Senate filibuster, and Republicans have only a 52-46 majority with 2 independents who regularly caucus with Democrats.
“The construct of this bill is that, at 20 weeks, the child is capable of feeling excruciating pain, “said bill co-sponsor Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., at a news conference. “Under Roe v. Wade, there is a state interest when the fetus becomes viable, and viability has definitely changed since 1973. I am going to embrace this as a legitimate, compelling state interest.”
The bill, which Graham said is based in science, notes that ultrasounds show in utero babies at 20 weeks sucking their thumbs, yawning, stretching and making faces.
“The United States is one of only seven countries, including North Korea, that allow abortion at five months of pregnancy,” said Democratic co-sponsor Sen. James Lankford of Oklahoma. “This is not trying to be divisive, this is trying to say these are common sense issues that the rest of the world has already settled, that we need to be able to resolve in our law as well.”
Several women’s advocacy and health organizations have come forward against the bill, including the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, which called the bill an “unconstitutional and a gross interference in the delivery of care.”
“The clear consensus by leading medical groups is that a ban on abortion after 20 weeks would interfere with the physician-patient relationship at a time when women are in need of empathetic, respectful and evidence-based care. These medical decisions should be made solely by each individual woman in consultation with those she trusts the most, including her obstetrician-gynecologist – not politicians,” the organization said on Tuesday after the House voted 237-189 to pass the bill.
At Thursday’s news conference, women from anti-abortion organizations encouraged the Senate to quickly push the legislation to the president’s desk. Susan B. Anthony List spokeswoman Mallory Quigley said a post-election poll in 2016 by a firm led by Kellyanne Conway showed a “majority of voters in 2018 battleground states also support this bill and are significantly less likely to vote for a senator who votes in favor to keep allowing late-term abortions.”
Graham said he was confident that the legislation will get the 60 votes needed in the Senate. The House version. But Kristen Day, executive director of the anti-abortion group Democrats for Life of America, said in an interview that there aren’t enough votes for the bill to pass. While anti-abortion Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Joe Donnelly of Indiana would likely favor the bill, she said, moderate Democrats like Sens. Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota and Tim Kaine of Virginia would likely vote against the bill.
“There are sitting members who are strongly pro-life and don’t vote that way,” she said. “Voting for the bill would be popular in their home states, but there’s enormous pressure to adhere to restrictions within the party.”
On Thursday, a Kaine spokeswoman said the senator voted against identical legislation in 2015 because he believed it violated a woman’s protected constitutional rights and that his position has not changed.