The U.S. Senate, with the help of Democrat Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia, recently voted against the Women’s Health Protection Act (the “Act”). This Act was a dangerous Democrat-backed abortion bill that sought to codify Roe v. Wade, provide unfettered discretion to abortion providers, and provide virtually no protection to the unborn.
As reported by LifeNews, Senate Democrats tried to end debate on the bill by way of cloture. This would have allowed a vote on the bill by circumventing the filibuster. However, lawmakers voted 48-46 against cloture, thereby sustaining the filibuster and ultimately defeating the bill.
Not surprisingly, the vote was along party lines, with one exception. All available Republicans voted against cloture, while all available Democrats, other than Senator Manchin, voted in favor of cloture. Manchin, to his credit, voted with Republicans in defeating the bill.
The bill was nothing short of a travesty. While proponents tried to sell it as nothing more than a “codification” of the right to an abortion, that is simply not the case, as I discussed here. For example, as reported by LifeNews, the Act would:
- Eliminate all state and federal parental consent laws in relation to abortion
- Eliminate all state informed consent laws, including those that allow women to view an ultrasound prior to abortion
- Prevent states from passing laws to protect babies at 20 weeks, thereby joining countries like North Korea, China, Vietnam, Singapore, Canada, and the Netherlands in not protecting unborn children later in development
- Force doctors and nurses opposed to abortion to lose their jobs, and Catholic hospitals could lose public funds unless they perform abortions
- Eliminate decades-long limitations on direct taxpayer funding of abortion — including the popular Hyde Amendment, which has saved more than 2 million lives since enacted
“In short, the legislation would overturn all federal and state pro-life laws and make it illegal for elected officials to even introduce pro-life legislation,” noted LifeNews.
Manchin’s decision to vote with Republicans should be commended by people on all sides of the political spectrum regardless of where they stand on the abortion debate. This bill wasn’t a serious effort to somehow “rectify” the abortion debate and/or protect women’s health. Rather, it was nothing short of an automatic stamp of approval to perform “abortion on demand” no matter the cost to mother and/or baby.
By way of example, the bill allowed for late-term abortions, thereby ignoring the rights and needs of the unborn child altogether. Therefore, a woman could technically choose to abort a child at 39 weeks because having the child would be detrimental to her physical or emotional health. According to Susan B. Anthony List President Marjorie Dannenfelser:
This radical “Abortion Until Birth Act” would block popular pro-life laws around the country, including limits on late-term abortions when unborn babies feel pain, and effectively enshrine an unlimited abortion “right” in federal law. Pro-abortion Democrats are desperate to stop the pro-life momentum demonstrated by pro-life laws advancing in state legislatures nationwide.
Manchin and Senate Republicans took a very important stand in defeating this bill. In essence, they pushed back against the far-left’s efforts to remove all rights from the unborn. By way of this Act, Democrats expected Americans to accept the notion that an unborn child has no rights whatsoever.
Fortunately, Manchin and Senate Republicans disagreed and were able to defeat this dangerous and radical bill for the time being.
