Today members of the US Senate will vote on a radical pro-abortion bill. If enacted, this legislation would go much further than codifying Roe to legalize abortion in federal law. This measure would prohibit states from creating any new law to restrict abortion access and would invalidate hundreds of state abortion laws already on the books across the country. Indeed, if this measure were to become law, it would be the most radical and extreme abortion law in the history of the United States.
The measure, HR 3755, is deceptively titled the “Women’s Health Protection Act of 2021.” This bill does not protect women or their health. Pro-life advocates call it the “Abortion on Demand Until Birth Act.” In addition to legalizing abortion at the federal level, this measure would roll back hundreds of pro-life legal protections already in place.
HR 3755 was passed by the US House of Representatives last fall on a mostly party-line vote of 218-211, with only one pro-life Democrat joining the Republicans to oppose the measure. You can see how your representative voted here.
Pro-abortion activists are pushing for a vote on this measure because they are worried that the US Supreme Court could overturn Roe v. Wade later this spring when they rule on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.
If this bill were to become law, it would effectively undo every legal protection the pro-life movement has worked to accomplish over the last 50 years.
In fact, according to Heritage Foundation, “Since 1973, states have enacted more than 1,300 life-affirming policies—more than 500 in the past decade alone.”
For example, this measure would invalidate partial-birth abortion bans, protection for babies who survive abortion, ultrasound requirements, parental consent requirements, bans on late-term abortion, bans on abortion based on race, sex, or disability discrimination, informed consent laws, waiting period laws, health and safety standards for abortion facilities, fetal pain laws, restrictions on telemed abortions, and conscience laws.
Under the logic of this legislation, doctors will be forced to perform abortions even if it goes against their conscience. Babies will be aborted at any time, for any reason, and using any method desirable. Parents will not need to be notified if their minor daughter is getting an abortion, and abortion facilities need not follow health and safety standards to protect women’s health.
If HR 3755 was law, pro-life measures like the Texas Heartbeat Act and Mississippi’s 15-week abortion ban would be considered illegal.
This legislation needs 60 votes in order to move ahead with debate and a final vote on the bill.
Given the current makeup of the Senate, it is highly unlikely that the bill will get the number of votes needed.
However, the vote today is still very important as we look to see which senators are friends to the pro-life movement and which senators are not.
We encourage you to contact your senator today and urge a no vote on HR 3755. Preborn babies deserve to be protected under the law.
Photo from Shutterstock.
