Republicans advance anti-abortion measures with new majority

WASHINGTON — Republicans in the House of Representatives are taking urgent action on abortion with their new majority, approving two measures Wednesday that make it clear they want further restrictions after the Supreme Court struck down the federal right to abortion last year.

The new Republican-led House of Representatives passed one resolution condemning attacks on anti-abortion facilities, including emergency pregnancy centers, and a separate bill introducing new penalties if a doctor refuses to care for a baby born alive after an attempted abortion.

Neither is expected to pass the Democratic-led Senate, but Republicans have said they are making good on promises to address this issue, along with other legislative priorities, in their early days in office.

“You won’t have freedom, real freedom, if the government doesn’t protect your most fundamental right, your right to life,” said new House Judiciary Committee chairman Jim Jordan, of Ohio, who led the debate on the measures.

However, the two measures are far from a bold statement about abortion, which proved politically difficult for them after the June Supreme Court decision that struck down Roe v. Wade nearly 50 years later and allowed states to impose a near-to-total ban on abortion. While some Republicans pushed for expanding the solution with a national ban or a compromise ban that would restrict abortion beyond a certain point, many Republicans rejected the option. And it became clear that most Americans would be against it.

A July AP-NORC poll found that Republicans are generally against allowing abortions “for any reason” after 15 weeks of pregnancy. But just 16% of Republicans say abortion should be “illegal in all cases” at all, and a majority, 56%, say their states should allow six-week abortions at all. According to AP VoteCast, a national poll of the intermediate electorate, 61% of all voters said they support a law guaranteeing access to legal abortions nationwide.

National sentiment has left some Republicans wary of the party’s traditional strong opposition to abortion rights.

South Carolina Rep. Nancy Mays, a Republican who says she is against abortion, said she thinks pushing the issue early is misguided. She said she believes a majority of voters in her swing district opposed the Supreme Court’s decision to reverse Roe’s decision.

“This is probably not the best way to start the week,” Mace told MSNBC.

Republicans who backed the two measures tried not to link them to Roe’s repeal, stressing that they were narrow-minded.

“I want to be absolutely clear that this bill has nothing to do with the Supreme Court’s decision,” said Missouri Rep. Ann Wagner, the Republican sponsor of the bill.

Rep. Barry Laudermilk of Georgia said Wednesday’s measures reflect what Republicans see as urgent abortion priorities. Republicans in the House of Representatives still “need to discuss” more massive changes, namely a ban on abortion, he said.

Loudermilk said he thought the matter should be left up to the states, “otherwise we’ll start muddying the waters again.”

Encouraged by public opposition to the Supreme Court’s decision, Democrats enthusiastically opposed the measure, predicting that Republicans were only laying the groundwork for a national ban.

“The differences between our side of the aisle and their side of the aisle couldn’t be clearer,” said Democratic Party leader Hakim Jeffreys of New York.

Democrats criticized the resolution condemning the attacks on pro-abortion institutions as one-sided because it did not condemn the similar – and longstanding – violence against abortion clinics. The resolution is “terribly incomplete,” said New York Rep. Jerrold Nadler, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee.

The Democrats argued that there was no need for a law imposing new punishments on doctors, since it was already illegal to kill a baby. According to them, this will create new complex standards that will make it difficult for medical workers to work.

“It’s a dastardly solution in search of a problem,” said Rep. Judy Chu, D-California.

Last summer, the Democratic-led House of Representatives voted to restore abortion rights nationwide, but the bill was blocked in the Senate, where opinions differed. The bill would expand the protection Rowe previously provided by banning what supporters are calling medically unnecessary restrictions that block access to safe and affordable abortions.

GOP bills are doomed to a similar fate in the Senate this session. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Americans elected Senate Democrats to “serve as a firewall” against what he called extreme Republican views.

“Republicans are proving how dangerously disconnected they are from mainstream America,” Schumer said.