A List Of Reasons To Take Lindsey Graham’s Abortion Bill Seriously
McConnell and Cornyn had a lot to say about whether Graham’s bill is the caucus position and whether, ultimately, abortion rights should be an issue for the federal government or individual states. But neither disavowed Graham’s substantive position about when abortion should be legal.
And why would they? The party’s official position is that life begins at conception, that abortion is murder and that the law should treat it as such. It’s been that way for nearly 50 years and it was that way in 2016, which is the last time the GOP had an official platform. (Republicans didn’t formally approve a platform in 2020.)
Read more at Huffpost
Republicans Double Down on Obliterating Abortion Rights in “Commitment to America” Agenda
In a one-page “Commitment to America” officially unveiled on Friday, wherein House conservatives laid out their legislative priorities should they prevail in the midterms, the party declared that it will devote its time to, among other things, “protect[ing] the lives of unborn children.” Obviously, what they mean by this is that they’ll do everything in their power to obliterate the rights of pregnant people. While the agenda is short on any specifics or proposals, it’s not hard to fill in the blanks. Speaking to Axios, Representative Bob Good approvingly noted that there is a “strong majority” of House Republicans cosponsoring the Life at Conception Act, which would define life as beginning at the moment of fertilization, effectively making abortion illegal. (The bill currently has 166 cosponsors.)
Read more at Vanity Fair
House GOP Platform Uses Shorthand For Extreme Anti-Abortion Position
One of the most notable planks in the plan reads: “Protect the lives of unborn children and their mothers.”
The phrase “unborn children” is often shorthand for the concept of “fetal personhood,” the anti-abortion stance that fetuses are essentially just small children, and have rights under the 14th Amendment. Fetal personhood laws would push past the abortion bans that are now in place in many red states, and reclassify the procedure as murder.
Read more at Talking Points Memo
So Much for States’ Rights: Republicans Are Eyeing a National Abortion Ban
But, as The Washington Post pointed out last week, that hasn’t stopped Republicans like Buck and Graham from expressing support for a national abortion ban — a sweeping invasion of privacy that would seem to trample over state sovereignty. As Pramila Jayapal, chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, wrote Tuesday, “Overturning Roe was never about giving power back to states. It was about controlling our bodies and our personal autonomy. We cannot let this happen.”
Read more at Vanity Fair
White House warns Graham abortion bill would create ‘nationwide health care crisis’
“If passed and enacted, this bill would create a nationwide health crisis, imperiling the health and lives of women in all 50 states. It would transform the practice of medicine, opening the door to doctors being thrown in jail if they fulfill their duty of care to patients according to their best medical judgment,” Klein wrote in the memo, which was obtained by The Hill.
Read more at The Hill