KFor almost three months, the Republican Party in Washington had been conspicuously reticent when it came to the subject of abortion. The dispute over stricter abortion laws or bans had moved to the states after the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn federal abortion laws. In the capital, Republicans contented themselves with expressing satisfaction that decision-making power had returned to the states, and otherwise largely ignored the issue.
It was all the more surprising for many when Lindsey Graham appeared before the press on Tuesday and brought the abortion debate back to Washington with a bang eight weeks before the congressional elections: the 67-year-old senator from South Carolina wants to ban abortions nationwide after the 15th week. Graham presented a corresponding bill “to protect pain-sensitive unborn children from late abortions” on Tuesday. “Abortion is a controversial issue,” Graham said at the press conference. He decided to speak out on the subject.
The draft law justifies the point in time of 15 weeks with the fact that an unborn child can feel pain “at the latest in the 15th week, if not earlier”; There should be exceptions in the case of rape, incest or when the mother’s life is in danger. The draft includes passages that say, for example, that in a majority of abortions after 15 weeks or more, surgical instruments are used to “crush and tear an unborn child before the parts of the dead child are removed from the womb.”
Graham, who previously advocated a 20-week abortion ban, knows the bill has no chance of getting through Congress with the current Democratic majority. Even if Republicans win a majority in both houses of Congress in November, President Joe Biden could veto the bill. But he’s playing for time, Graham said on Tuesday. “In less than ten years it may already be law.” He has the support of colleagues; on Tuesday, however, voices from the Republican party in particular were loud, who distanced themselves from the initiative.
Activists protest for abortion rights in Washington on Tuesday
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Image: AFP
It was the “individual decision of a senator”, not a joint decision of the Republicans in the Senate, the news magazine Politico quoted Senator John Cornyn from Texas as saying on Tuesday. There are obviously different opinions on whether abortion laws should be regulated in the states or whether a “minimum standard” should be established at the federal level. He prefers it if “these decisions are made in each state individually”. Senate Minority Republican Leader Mitch McConnell also said Tuesday that “most Senate Republicans prefer the issue to be dealt with in the states.” Graham previously said he had not spoken to McConnell about the bill.
As recently as May, the South Carolina senator wrote on Twitter that the fundamental decision on abortion was “Roe v. Overturning Wade” of 1973 was “the most constitutionally reasonable way”. Tuesday’s bill expressly states that it “should not be construed to create or recognize a right to an abortion.” Laws that provide greater protection for an unborn child would not be undermined or restricted by this.
Graham’s move was heavily criticized in the White House. Biden’s spokeswoman, Karine Jean-Pierre, said in a statement that the bill “does not correspond in any way” to what Americans want. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called it the “latest, most blatant sign of extreme Trump Republicans” trying to criminalize women’s health choices across America. For the Democrats, abortion rights have become a major issue in the campaign for the congressional elections.
In an August poll by the Pew Research Center, 56 percent of registered voters said the issue of abortion will be very important to them in November; in March, only 43 percent of those surveyed said so. If you look at the Democratic voters alone, the discrepancy between spring – before the Supreme Court decision – and August is even greater: Instead of 46 percent, 71 percent now classified the issue as very important. For Republicans, on the other hand, there was almost no change on the abortion question at 41 to 40 percent.