Sen. Lindsey Graham introduced his national 15-week abortion ban on Thursday, because what Republican efforts to convince voters that they aren’t anti-abortion extremists needed was an official proposal for a national abortion ban.
“I think we should have a law at the federal level that would say, after 15 weeks, no abortion on demand except in cases of rape, incest or to save the life of the mother,” Graham told reporters. “And that should be where America is at.” And if that’s not where large chunks of America are at, tough, because congressional Republicans are going to impose it.
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“Abortion is a contentious issue,” Graham said. “Abortion is not banned in America. It is left up to elected officials in America to define the issue ... States have the ability to do [so] at the state level and we have the ability in Washington to speak on this issue if we choose. I have chosen to speak.”
Graham’s plan is for states to not have the ability to choose. His bill wouldn’t restore abortion rights up to 15 weeks in the states that have banned it. It would just strip away rights in states that have not banned abortion. While the bill doesn’t stand a chance of passing a Congress controlled by Democrats, Graham pledged, “If we take back the House and Senate, I can assure you we'll have a vote.”
Graham is trying to sell his bill as a moderate compromise that just bans “late-term abortions,” but in addition to the fact that “late-term abortion” is not medical language, 15 weeks is substantially earlier than the point at which abortion opponents usually start using that label. Similarly, Graham’s inclusion of “Pain Capable Unborn Children” in the title of the bill is a lie. According to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, “The science conclusively establishes that a human fetus does not have the capacity to experience pain until after at least 24–25 weeks.”
But even if any of these attempts to paint a sharp restriction of abortion rights in many states as moderate were accurate, Graham’s bill is a starting point for Republicans, not a stopping point, just as we’ve seen in Republican-controlled states. Graham’s own trajectory shows that. A few months ago, he was all about the states deciding “if abortion is legal and on what terms”:
Even last month, Graham was saying, “I think states should decide the issue of marriage and states should decide the issue of abortion.” Now he is leading an effort to get the federal government to institute a ban. Similarly, once Republicans have their 15-week ban, they’re going to get more extreme.
If voters let them. Graham promised, “If we take back the House and Senate, I can assure you we'll have a vote.” Voters should take that very seriously, but it begins with a big if. There are lots of signs—from the lopsided vote for abortion rights in Kansas to the special elections in New York and Alaska to a host of polls—that voters are furious about the loss of abortion rights and ready to go out and vote to protect them. Graham’s bill should add urgency to that.
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