Democrats vow to make abortion protections top priority if they receive majority

House Democrats are promising to include abortion protections among their first acts of business next year if voters return them to power in the November elections.

Lawmakers warn that keeping the Republican Party in control of the House – especially if Republicans take over the Senate and the White House – would lead to tougher restrictions not only on abortions, but also on contraception, in vitro fertilization (IVF) and research. with stem cells.

Her plan is to quickly advance legislation that protects women from these restrictions, even in conservative states where lawmakers have signed them into law.

“House Democrats believe unequivocally in a woman’s freedom to make her own decisions about reproductive health care — period, period,” said House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (DN.Y.) during a rally about reproductive health at the Capitol on Thursday.

“It’s a decision that should be between a woman, her family, her faith and her doctors. The extreme effort by the far right to eliminate reproductive freedom is unacceptable, unfair, and un-American. We must stop them; and together we will stop them.”

Jeffries said Democrats, if returned to power next year, would pass several different proposals to protect the right to abortion, access to contraception and the use of in vitro fertilization procedures across the country.

Representative Judy Chu (D-Calif.) is the sponsor of one such bill: the Women’s Health Protection Act, which would restore the constitutional right to abortion that was struck down by the Supreme Court in 2022. Her legislation would protect patients and providers from criminal charges, even in states where the procedure is essentially prohibited.

“For the first time in American history, young women have fewer rights than their grandmothers. But it doesn’t have to be that way,” Chu said. When we re-elect President Biden, this will be the first bill to pass the floor and Congress.”

The comments came in a week when Democrats are highlighting the two-year anniversary of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. Wade, the 1973 case that established access to abortion as a constitutional right.

Following that decision, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, more than 20 states have enacted new laws prohibiting or placing strict limits on the procedure. Supporters of these laws say they protect the sanctity of life. However, the restrictions have led to cases in which doctors, fearing criminal consequences, have refused to perform abortions even when they consider the mother’s life to be at risk.

“Now more than ever, the public is suffering the tragic consequences of allowing politicians to dictate what medical care women can and cannot receive,” Rep. Suzan DelBene (Wash.), head of the branch, said this week. campaign for the Democrats.

The issue has been important for Democrats since the Supreme Court ruling, as voters in states across the country — including Republican strongholds like Kansas, Kentucky and Ohio — adopted measures protecting access to abortion care. Democrats have also been encouraged by public opinion polls that routinely reveal that a majority of voters oppose abortion restrictions, especially when the mother’s health is at risk.

The Biden administration has seized on the unpopularity of these restrictions to attack former President Trump, whose appointment of three conservative justices to the Supreme Court paved the way for the decision to overturn Roe — an issue that will certainly feature prominently in Thursday night’s presidential debate .

Trump, for his part, is treading carefully on the issue, embracing his role in overturning Roe while refusing to support a federal abortion ban favored by many of his conservative supporters. That was the message Trump delivered to House Republicans earlier this month during a private meeting on Capitol Hill.

“He still believes that Dobbs’ decision was the right decision for America and that the American people need to decide the issue, as they are doing now,” Rep. Kevin Hern (R-Okla.) said afterward. This may be the time and place for the federal government to get involved. But now what needs to be done is the voices of the people in the states.”

With the House up for grabs in November, House Democrats are also highlighting the issue in hopes it will encourage voters to side with them at the polls.

Rep. Diana DeGette (D-Colo.), co-chair of the House Pro-Choice Caucus, noted Thursday that the vast majority of the House GOP conference has endorsed legislation that establishes personhood at conception — a concept that It would effectively ban abortion, IVF procedures, many forms of contraception, and stem cell research.

“They really don’t want to talk about it right now, because they realize that the vast majority of Americans, and the vast majority of their voters, oppose these extreme laws,” DeGette said. “But make no mistake, if they keep the House, if they take the Senate, and if Donald Trump wins the White House, this is exactly the far-right majority that will enact these laws.

“We simply cannot allow this to happen.”

This story originally appeared on thehill.com read the full story