The House passed two bills today aimed at protecting abortion access after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade. The first is the Women’s Health Protection Act, which would prohibit a wide range of government restrictions on abortion, including abortion medications and abortion-related telemedicine, both of which are essential right now as abortion is banned or highly restricted in close to half the states in the U.S.
The WHPA has already passed the House once in the last year, only to die in the Senate. Back in May, Joe Manchin joined with Republicans to kill the bill. This was also the bill that Susan Collins called the police over, when chalk art appeared on the sidewalk outside of her home, urging her to vote for it. So no, I don’t think there’s much chance of this progressing any further this time around, but I guess it’s encouraging that the House keeps trying.
The WHPA passed by a 219–210 vote, with only one Democrat voting against it: Texas Rep. Henry Cuellar. Longtime incumbent Cuellar just barely won his highly publicized recent primary against progressive candidate Jessica Cisneros, and the race was close enough to go through a recount. Still, the pro-ICE, anti-abortion Cuellar used his extremely narrow win to justify his more extreme views. In case you were wondering who the House equivalent of Joe Manchin is, it looks like it’s Cuellar.
The second bill is the Ensuring Access To Abortion Act, which would offer protections for people forced to travel across state lines to receive abortion care and for the medical providers performing abortions on out-of-state patients. That bill passed 223–2015, and while we can welcome the support of a few Republicans, it’s also very glaringly obvious that this is the abortion version of a NIMBY (“not in my backyard”) stance—they support abortion, just get it away from them.
In a statement, Planned Parenthood Action Fund president Alexis McGill Johnson said: “Following the Supreme Court overturning of Roe, we are facing a national health care crisis, and we need leaders at all levels of government to meet this moment. Despite Republican lawmaker attempts to block these bills, we are grateful that our sexual and reproductive health champions in the House once again took action for abortion rights. It’s unconscionable, but frankly not surprising, that anti-abortion rights lawmakers continue to defy their constituents’ will and oppose legislation that would help safeguard their access to essential health care. That includes the freedom to travel across state lines for care without fear of criminalization. Each person — not politicians — should have the power to decide if and when to start or expand their family.”
Every day that passes without access to safe, legal, and local abortion is a crisis. It’s immensely frustrating to get dozens of fundraising emails from Democrats every week (sometimes dozens every day), bordering on exploiting that crisis to garner party support for an election still months away. Still, every Republican (and especially those few Democrats) who insist on opposing our basic human rights deserve to have a spotlight on them. As McGill said in her statement, “The members of Congress who voted against these bills are standing on the wrong side of the American people and history. This November, voters will remember.”
Hopefully, that’s true.
(image: Alex Wong/Getty Images)
