The U.S. House of Representatives pushed through legislation creating new restrictions on abortion last week.
The “Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act,” sponsored by Arizona Congressman Trent Franks (R-CD8), passed 242-184 on a mostly party-line vote; four Democrats voted for the bill, while four Republicans voted against it. It would ban abortions after 20 weeks except in cases of rape or incest or if the mother’s life was in danger.
The legislation had stalled earlier this year over provisions that the required victims of rape or incest report the crimes to authorities in order to be able to terminate pregnancies.
Among Southern Arizona lawmakers, Republican Martha McSally voted in favor of the new restrictions while Democrats Raul Grijalva and Ann Kirkpatrick voted against the bill.
The bill has little chance of becoming law; even if it were to pass the U.S. Senate, it would face an almost-certain veto from President Barack Obama. A January statement of administration policy noted that Obama’s advisors would recommend that he reject the legislation, noting that the bill “is a direct challenge to the Supreme Court’s holdings on abortion. Not only is the basis for H.R. 36 scientifically disputed, the bill disregards women’s health and rights, the role doctors play in their patients’ health care decisions, and the Constitution.”
Pro-choice advocates say that only a tiny percentage of abortions—less than 2 percent nationally—happen after 20 weeks. That’s sometimes because the mother discovers that the fetus has developed a serious birth defect, such as organs growing outside of the body. In such cases, women face the heartbreaking choice between aborting the pregnancy or giving birth to a child who cannot survive for long—if at all—outside the womb. The legislation would require the women to give birth in those cases.
McSally spokesman Patrick Ptak didn’t directly address the question of restricting abortion options for women who discover their children have significant birth defects after 20 weeks of pregnancy, but he said McSally voted in favor of the bill because she “believes in the dignity of life while ensuring protections for women who are victims of rape or incest and in cases when the life of the mother is threatened.”
This article appears in May 14-20, 2015.
“The “Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act,” sponsored by Arizona Congressman Trent Franks (R-CD8), passed on mostly party line vote; four Democrats voted for the bill, while four Republicans voted against it. It would ban abortions after 20 months except in cases of rape or incest or if the mother’s life was in danger.”
Can we get a copy editor up in this b!#(h?
More Republican beliefs in junk science and passing laws to force their uninformed medical decisions upon women, their doctors, and their families–I think we have more to do than this continual obsession on women that flows non-stop from the old white men in elected positions.
Sexist and racist? Cute, real cute.
I do not believe abortions are right but if you think you absolutely need one get it in the first 6-8 weeks and unless it is rape or incest pay for it yourself since birth control is available and there are several options to choose from. You don’t want people in your business then don’t expect the tax payer to foot the bill.
“Pro-choice advocates [Planned Parenthood] say that only a tiny percentage of abortions—less than 2 percent nationally—happen after 20 weeks.”
There are approximately 1,000,000 abortions performed annually. Using Planned Parenthood’s two-percent figure, that is 20,000 children murdered annually.
Republicans…….at your cervix.
Will someone please explain why abortion is so important. You people wanted this ‘free’ birth control and got it. Why not use it? There are more than one option to choose from.
Who will defend the child?
McSally “believes in the dignity of life while ensuring protections for women who are victims of rape or incest and in cases when the life of the mother is threatened.”
Typical anti-choice mealy mouthed republican bullsh*t…
Republicans are all about “small government” but want “LARGE GOVERNMENT” poking their noses into people’s personal lives…
HYPOCRITES!
(And ACTUALLY, I don’t believe McSally BELIEVES anything — she’s a space filling drone without an independent thought doing whatever the republican “leadership” tells her to do)
I wish McSally’s parents would have believed in abortion. (Not really but it was fun to say.)
It really is funny how Republicans do play that whole card of less government, until it goes against their personal beliefs, then they want to impose their belief system on everyone. The first thing out of any conservative when you disagree with them is “You must be a lib.” I am now going to start telling them “Yep just like Jesus was.”
Organs growing outside the body and still force the mother to go through the birth? Republicans are incredibly cruel, at least toward women. Of course this is just the tip of the iceberg. They want to ban all abortion and birth control.
Every woman should have the right to a free abortion, regardless of the age or circumstances.
everything the republicans do, costs the middle class dearly.
Killing a child should *never* be a choice.
Old Pueblo Independent wrote: “Every woman should have the right to a free abortion, regardless of the age or circumstances.”
Apparently a child to you that has yet to be born is nothing more than a cancerous tumor. How very, very sad for you.
McSally needs those children to pay the debt of her A-10s that the pentagon doesn’t want to pay for.