This is from the Center for Reproductive Rights:
05.13.14 - (PRESS RELEASE) Today Senator
Lindsey Graham (R-SC) is expected to try to force a vote on his
unconstitutional, nationwide abortion ban and cynically pit this measure
against the Women’s Health Protection Act (S. 1696/H.R. 3471)—a bill that
would prohibit politicians from imposing unconstitutional
restrictions on reproductive health care that apply to no similar medical care,
interfere with women’s personal decision making, and block access to safe and
legal abortion services.
Senator Graham’s move will
attempt to leapfrog other matters before the Senate, with no prior debate or
committee consideration, to advance his bill that would ban nearly all abortions
in the U.S. performed after 20 weeks of pregnancy with only extremely narrow
exceptions to save a pregnant woman’s life and in cases of rape or incest that
have been reported to legal authorities.
Said
Nancy Northup, president and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights:
"In
the midst of a national crisis for reproductive health care, the choice before
Congress is clear. They must advance federal legislation that would truly
defend women's well-being, safety, and rights, not political attacks that can
only worsen the dangerous circumstances that millions of women nationwide now
face.
"The
Women's Health Protection Act would ensure access to safe, legal, high-quality
care for women facing the often complicated personal decision to end a pregnancy,
while the legislative attacks of Senator Graham and his allies put women at
risk of grave harm.
"By
impeding women's access to caring, reputable health care providers, these
measures would drive women in desperate circumstances to unscrupulous, unsafe,
unregulated back-alley providers whose shady practices could cost them their
lives."
The Women's Health Protection
Act, which now has nearly 150 Senate and House cosponsors, is designed to
enforce and protect access to safe, legal abortion care for all women in the
U.S. under a framework of limits and regulations as recognized by Roe
v. Wade and supported by seven in 10 Americans.
Bans on abortion at 20 weeks
are as dangerous as they are unconstitutional, coming at a point at which a
woman is just receiving the results of critical tests to determine the health
of her pregnancy—and potentially the presence of life-threatening fetal
abnormalities.
The U.S. Supreme Court has
consistently held—first in Roe v. Wade and again in Planned
Parenthood v. Casey—that states cannot ban abortion prior to viability.
Earlier this year, the US Supreme Court refused to review a decision permanently blocking
Arizona’s ban on abortion at 20 weeks of pregnancy, and courts in Idaho and
Georgia have also recently blocked similar pre-viability bans. And in March
2014, West Virginia Governor Earl Ray Tomblin vetoed a similar measure, stating
that the bill was unconstitutional and “unduly restricts the physician-patient
relationship.”
the center for reproductive rights
