With Roe Gone, Some House Republicans Back Away From National Abortion Ban

Nearly three dozen House Republicans who supported a federal abortion ban in the last Congress have yet to sign on this year, reflecting a shifting political calculus after the overturning of Roe v. Wade.

By Annie Karni
Jan. 12, 2024

In 2021, Representative Michelle Steel, a California Republican whose district President Biden won in 2020, cosponsored the Life at Conception Act, a bill to recognize a fertilized egg as a person with equal protections under the 14th Amendment.

It was a year before the Supreme Court would overturn Roe v. Wade. Ms. Steel was one of 166 House Republicans — then roughly three-quarters of the conference — who would ultimately sign on to the legislation, which amounted to a nationwide abortion ban. She did so just weeks after it was introduced.

Continued: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/12/us/politics/house-republicans-abortion-ban.html

Republicans reject abortion bans as ‘campaign-enders’ in warning to party

As states continue to bring in tighter restrictions on abortion, internal divisions within the GOP are starting to show

Poppy Noor
Thu 4 May 2023

In one state, Republican women filibustered to block a near-total abortion ban introduced by their own party. In another, the Republican co-sponsor of a six-week abortion ban subsequently tanked his own bill. On the federal level, a Republican congresswoman warns that the GOP’s abortion stance could mean “losing huge” in 2024.

As states continue to bring in tighter restrictions on abortion following the fall of Roe v Wade, internal divisions within the Republican party on the issue are starting to show.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/may/04/republican-lawmakers-reject-abortion-bans

04.05.2023

‘We need to read the room’: GOP divided on abortion as Democrats unite for 2024

Democrats center abortion rights in early stages of presidential campaign while Republicans waver over unpopular position

Lauren Gambino in Washington DC
Sun 30 Apr 2023

Hours after Joe Biden announced his re-election campaign on Tuesday, his vice-president and 2024 running mate, Kamala Harris, delivered a fiery call to action for voters alarmed by the loss of constitutional protections for abortion.

“This is a moment for us to stand and fight,” she said to a packed auditorium at Howard University, a historically Black college in Washington and her alma mater. To the “extremist so-called leaders” rolling back access to reproductive rights, Harris warned: “Don’t get in our way because if you do, we’re going to stand up, we’re going to organize and we’re going to speak up.”

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/apr/30/republicans-divided-abortion-democrats-united-2024-election

Majority of Americans oppose bans of medication abortion drugs, poll finds

Majority of Americans also don’t believe federal judges should be able to overturn FDA approval of a prescription drug, poll shows

Sam Levine in New York
Mon 24 Apr 2023

A significant majority of Americans do not support laws that would prohibit access to drugs used in medication abortions, and confidence in the US supreme court is at a new low, according to a new NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll released on Monday.

A majority of Americans also do not believe federal judges should be able to overturn the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) approval of a prescription drug, the poll found.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/apr/24/medication-abortion-pill-poll-public-support

24.04.2023

News

Clarence Thomas

Food and Drug Administration

Lindsey Graham

Nancy Mace

polls on abortion

public support for abortion

United States

Human Rights

Two days that could shape abortion access and the future of American health care

Analysis by Stephen Collinson, CNN
Thu April 20, 2023

The future of a widely used medication to end pregnancies, the health care options of American women and even the viability of US regulatory approvals for routine drugs are all in question as the Supreme Court deliberates on a critical abortion case ahead of a deadline extended to Friday.

Justice Samuel Alito gave the court more time Wednesday, extending a temporary hold on an order by a Texas judge, which would block approval of the mifepristone, and on a subsequent appeals court ruling, which would let the government’s approval of the drug stand but agreed access could be limited. It’s the most important abortion case since the high court overturned Roe v. Wade last year. The extension, until 11:59 p.m. ET Friday, means the drug remains available. But the possibility of health care chaos will not ease over the next 48 hours.

Continued: https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/20/politics/abortion-access-supreme-court-analysis/index.html

Republican-controlled House pushes for new abortion restrictions

Bills not expected to advance in Senate but underscore Republican majority’s legislative priorities ahead of 2024 election

Lauren Gambino in Washington
Wed 11 Jan 2023

The Republican-led House on Wednesday pressed ahead with a pair of anti-abortion measures, despite warning signs that the issue had galvanized the opposition in the wake of the supreme court’s decision to overturn Roe v Wade last year.

Voting mostly along party lines, Republicans first approved a bill that would compel doctors to provide care for an infant who survives an attempted abortion – an occurrence that is exceedingly rare.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jan/11/new-abortion-restrictions-bills-republicans-house-congress

USA – Abortion Bans Are Disregarding the Lives of Sexual Assault Survivors

By removing even exceptions for rape from their anti-abortion legislation, Republican politicians are finally starting to say the quiet part out loud.

By Kylie Cheung
Feb 22, 2022

Anti-abortion politicians have always been clear on one thing: Abortion is murder. But for years, this “logic” hasn’t held up against their occasional concession that abortion bans make exceptions for rape. Of course, if these politicians genuinely believed that abortion is murder, they wouldn’t allow any concession at all. Instead, they have long used the rape exception to have it both ways, claiming to simultaneously care about women and also be “pro-life”—two antithetical positions to take.

This dynamic is beginning to shift. Since the much-publicized feud between Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and fellow Republican Rep. Nancy Mace last December over whether abortion bans should include rape exceptions at all, a string of recent proposed and enacted state abortion bans have been made in Taylor Greene’s image more so than Mace’s.

Continued: https://jezebel.com/abortion-bans-rape-exceptions-effect-survivors-1848516164

U.S. lawmakers break rape silence as abortion bans spread

U.S. lawmakers break rape silence as abortion bans spread
As one Republican legislature after another has pressed ahead with restrictive abortion bills, they’ve been confronted with raw testimony about the consequences

The Associated Press
Updated: May 18, 2019

COLUMBUS, Ohio — For more than two decades, Nancy Mace did not speak publicly about her rape. In April, when she finally broke her silence, she chose the most public of forums — before her colleagues in South Carolina’s legislature.

A bill was being debated that would ban all abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detected; Mace, a Republican lawmaker, wanted to add an exception for rape and incest. When some of her colleagues in the House dismissed her amendment — some women invent rapes to justify seeking an abortion, they claimed — she could not restrain herself.

Continued: https://vancouversun.com/news/world/in-abortion-debates-female-lawmakers-recount-their-rapes/wcm/24716b4d-a25f-4814-9fd0-db73e12cd420