Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives, led by Speaker Nancy Pelosi, on Friday passed two bills to protect women’s access to abortion and reproductive healthcare services. Every no vote except one, which was on one bill, came from a Republican.
One, the Women’s Health Protection Act, would codify Roe v. Wade – the right to abortion – into law. It passed 219-210. 209 Republicans and one Democrat voted against the bill.
The second, they Right To Travel For Abortion Services, protecting the right to travel across state lines to obtain healthcare, including abortion, passed 223-205, with all 205 “nay” votes coming from Republicans. Three GOP members voted “yea.”
The Guardian calls the votes on both bills “largely symbolic.”
In fact, both bills face extreme odds in the Senate, where one Republican, Senator James Lankford, has blocked the Right To Travel For Abortion Services bill and alleged, along with his Senate GOP colleagues, that it promotes “abortion tourism.” Lankford has stated he believes girls as young as 13 have the emotional capacity to consent to sex.
Meanwhile, back at the House of Representatives, several Republicans stood on the floor Friday and delivered at time false speeches against the legislation.
Rep. Debbie Lesko, who recently made headlines for stating she would shoot her own grandchildren if need be, then lashing out at those who correctly quoted her, bragged that she voted to oppose the Women’s Health Protection Act because it “threatens women’s rights and safety!”
Banning abortion will not end abortion, but make it dangerous as women seek alternatives that include greater risk, according to Dr. Ana Langer, whose bio at Harvard, where she is a professor of public health, says she is “a physician specializing in pediatrics and neonatology, and a reproductive health expert.”
“A recent study estimated that banning abortion in the U.S. would lead to a 21% increase in the number of pregnancy-related deaths overall and a 33% increase among Black women, simply because staying pregnant is more dangerous than having an abortion,” Dr. Langer says on Harvard’s website. “Increased deaths due to unsafe abortions or attempted abortions would be in addition to these estimates.”
Congresswoman Lesko and many other Republicans took to social media to falsely characterize the Democratic legislation to codify Roe as the “Abortion on Demand Until Birth Act.”
She was not alone.
Reps. Bob Latta (OH), Matt Gaetz (FL), Jeff Duncan (SC), Cathy McMorris Rodgers (WA), Markwayne Mullin (OK), and Larry Bucshon (IN) in the past 24 hours have all falsely call the bill the “Abortion on Demand Until Birth Act.”