Republican U.S. Senator James Lankford of Oklahoma is under fire after blocking a Democratic bill that would codify into law the right to travel across state lines to obtain an abortion. Some states with or considering abortion bans have also signaled they will make it illegal to leave the state to do so.
“No state has banned interstate travel for adult women seeking to obtain an abortion. This seems to be just trying to inflame, to raise what-ifs,” Lankford, who favors a nationwide abortion ban, told his Senate colleagues Thursday, HuffPost reports.
Senator Steve Daines, Republican of Montana, claimed Democrats’ “legislation would lead to ‘abortion tourism’ and that it would ‘protect the greed of woke corporations’ who have pledged to cover travel costs of their employees,” HuffPost’s Igor Bobic adds.
“Lankford also uses ‘abortion tourism’ language after blocking right to travel bill,” Bobic also reported on social media:
“Hey, come to our state stay in our hotels and have an abortion here, we’ll have a package for you set up to be able to do that,” he says of blue states.
The Washington Post’s Mike DeBonis adds that in addition to terms like “abortion tourism,” Republicans have called crossing state lines to obtain an abortion, “fly-in abortions,” and women “being trafficked across state lines.”
Several Republicans downplayed the threat of state lawmakers banning interstate travel for the purpose of obtaining an out-of-state abortion.
“It’s already protected in the Constitution,” Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) claimed, as did Justice Brett Kavanaugh in his concurring opinion in the Dobbs decision that overturned Roe v. Wade.
Legal experts aren’t so sure, HuffPost notes.
Meanwhile, on social media, Lankford and his fellow Republicans were highly criticized.
“‘Abortion tourism’ is such a cute reframe for ‘Desperately booking last minute travel and uprooting my life to get a very basic healthcare procedure where my bodily autonomy is recognized,'” said sexual and reproductive health researcher and writer Andréa (Dre) Becker, who has a PhD in medical sociology.
“Did not have ‘abortion tourism’ on my 2022 Bingo Card for ‘Vile Things Republicans Will Say to Invalidate The Humanity of Women and Girls,'” tweeted Jane van Dis MD, Assistant Professor ObGyn.
“Sen Lankford just blocked protections for interstate travel for abortion,” said popular political commentator Lindy Li. “This is the same Lankford who said under oath that a 13-YR-OLD could consent to sex.”
“Christian extremists who force birth on rape victims & validate the rape of kids are the most dangerous [people] in the nation,” she added.
The Associated Press last month reported that “in a 2010 deposition … given a week after he was elected to his first term in the U.S. House, Lankford testified that he believed a 13-year-old could consent to sex.”
“Yes, I think they can,” Lankford said, the AP reported. When an attorney later said, “if I ask you that question in terms of your position as a father,” the AP reports “Lankford maintained his stance.”
“Make no mistake,” tweeted freelance journalist Kaz Weida. “What Republican Lankford is saying is that it’s essential to monitor the movements & restrict the freedom of women. She is just a vessel and whatever clump of cells that resides in her uterus has more rights than she does.”
“He’s reducing women to breeding stock,” she added.
Former Republican and retired U.S. Naval War College professor Tom Nichols, a popular social media commentator, pointed to the remarks Lankford made (above) on the Senate floor Thursday.
“When Lankford says it’s ‘to inflame,’ he means ‘because we’re thinking of doing it.'”