A bill which would have drastically expanded abortion rights across the country was blocked in the Senate on Monday.
Under the Women’s Health Protection Act, states would be forced to allow abortions for any reason until the point of viability, which is usually around six months into a pregnancy. It would also ban most restrictions on abortion up to the point of birth.
Sen. Joe Manchin was the only Democrat to join Republicans in voting against the bill.
Daily Caller reported that the “WHPA would have invalidated all state and local laws restricting what types of abortion procedures are permissible while banning requirements that doctors give women medical tests such as ultrasounds before administering abortions, unless such requirements also applied to “medically comparable procedures'”.
Under the bill, restrictions for doctors prescribing pills via “telemedicine” would be ended.
“Abortion is a fundamental right. Women’s decisions over women’s health care belong to women, not to extremist right-wing legislatures,” said Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer.
Steve Daines, a Montana Republican, said the bill was “extreme,” adding that “It’s an egregious violation of the most fundamental of all human rights, and that is the right to life”.
Jeane Mancini, the president of the March for Life, said “This bill is obviously designed by pro-abortion politicians to appease the abortion lobby. Lawmakers, regardless of party affiliation, must reject it”.
Though Democrats expected the bill to fail, it was brought forward as Roe v. Wade is being reconsidered by the Supreme Court and facing an overturn.
