The House of Representatives voted to approve the Women’s Health Protection Act this morning, a sweeping bill that pro-life advocates warn would wipe away state pro-life laws across the country. The measure passed with a vote of 218 to 211.
Melanie Israel, a research associate for the Devos Center of Religion and Civil Society at the Heritage Foundation, told CBN News she considers the bill to be very dangerous for women and unborn babies alike.
Israel also wrote about it in a new report from Heritage saying it’s a danger to pro-life efforts of any kind, past and present.
“The bill would prevent state protections for children from abortion based on their sex, race, or diagnosis of a genetic abnormality such as Down Syndrome—policies that, in the words of Justice Clarence Thomas, ‘promote a State’s compelling interest in preventing abortion from becoming a tool of modern-day eugenics’,” she wrote.
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Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) opposed the measure in Congress saying, “This bill is far outside the American mainstream and goes far beyond Roe v Wade.”
“For the first time ever by congressional statute, H.R. 3755 would legally enable the death of unborn baby girls and boys by dismemberment, decapitation, forced expulsion from the womb, deadly poisons, or other methods at any time until birth,” Smith warned.
The bill doesn’t have as much support in the Senate where the Democrat margin of control is razor-thin at 50-50. A Republican filibuster of the bill is expected in the Senate, so the Democrats would need 60 votes to move ahead with it. They don’t appear to have those votes since Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) is considered to be pro-life, and even a prominent pro-choice Republican is opposing the bill.
According to the Los Angeles Times, the pro-choice Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), an occasional Democrat ally, rejects the bill saying, “I support codifying Roe. Unfortunately, the bill … goes way beyond that. It would severely weaken the conscience exceptions that are in the current law,” Collins said. She went on to call the measure “extreme.”
Heritage analyst Israel further warned in a recent column, “Rather than take away the American people’s ability to have a say in pro-life policymaking, Congress should pursue policies that protect innocent unborn human lives.”
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