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 But with the future of abortion access in the country in doubt,
Democratic leaders are facing pressure from abortion rights
advocates to hold a vote on the Women’s Health Protection Act
anyway.
Reproductive rights advocates see federal legislation as possibly
the best chance to codify the right to terminate pregnancy in the
United States, particularly after the U.S. Supreme Court's
conservative justices signaled they could soon overhaul
constitutional protections.
Abortion opponents characterize the act as radical and say it would
nullify state laws that have been passed to restrict abortions.
The Democratic-led U.S. House of Representatives passed the bill
last fall, and President Joe Biden supports it. It has little chance
of becoming law, however, as it would need several Republicans'
support in the Senate to reach the necessary 60-vote threshold.
Abortion is poised to be a key campaign issue for members of
Congress running for re-election in 2022.
Jeanne Mancini, president of national anti-abortion group March for
Life, criticized the bill as "the most radical abortion bill in
United States history."
Nancy Northup, the CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights, said
holding the Senate vote on the bill itself will be a win for
abortion rights advocates, even if the bill does not necessarily
pass this session.
"I think it's going to be very important that the senators are on
the record," she said in a telephone interview. "The voters can
judge them on that record when they make their decisions at the
polls."
DIVIDED SENATE
The right to have an abortion prior to fetal viability, typically
around 23 or 24 weeks, has been protected under the Constitution
since the Supreme Court's 1973 ruling in Roe v. Wade.
In December, the Supreme Court signaled its willingness to undermine
Roe v. Wade and permit a Mississippi ban on abortion after 15 weeks.
The court's decision in that case is expected in late spring.
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 Some 26 states would move to immediately ban
abortion if Roe is overturned, according to the
Guttmacher Institute, an abortion rights
advocacy research group. The
Women’s Health Protection Act, co-sponsored by 48 Senate Democrats,
states that healthcare providers should be able to provide abortions
without a number of barriers - including restrictions on abortions
prior to fetal viability, which many states currently have in place.
It states that the U.S. Attorney General can sue any state or
government official who violates the terms of the law.
Susan Collins of Maine, a Republican who has said she would support
codifying some abortion protections, told the Los Angeles Times in
September that she would not support the bill as written because she
thought parts of it were "extreme," and it went too far undermining
"conscious exceptions" to abortion rights in current law.
Spokespeople for Senators Joe Manchin, a Democrat who has not
signaled support for the bill, and Lisa Murkowski, a Republican who
supports limited abortion rights, did not immediately respond to
requests for comment.
In a September statement, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and
other Senate Democrats called the bill "critical legislation" in the
face of "unprecedented and unconscionable Republican attacks on
reproductive rights across the country."
(Reporting by Gabriella Borter and Moira Warburton; Editing by
Aurora Ellis)
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