Abortion

House To Hear D.C. 20 Week Abortion Ban Next Week

A judiciary committee is scheduled to hear a potential ban on abortions after 20 weeks for residents of the nation's capitol.

Rep. Trent Franks. [img src]

Not content to let state legislatures have all of the fun, House Republicans are reviving their efforts to impose their own abortion restrictions by creating new rules for Washington, D.C.  They’ve already overturned the city’s decision to allow poor women access to abortion via Medicaid, and now they want to pass an unconstitutional 20-week “fetal pain” abortion ban, despite the lack of any evidence of “fetal pain.”

The law will be brought up for a vote in the Republican dominated House Judiciary Committee next week.

Via Roll Call:

Rep. Trent Franks (R-Ariz.) told Roll Call on Wednesday afternoon that the Judiciary Subcommitee on the Constitution, which he is the chairman of, will hear testimony May 17, but he did not release a witness list.

“It is a very strong priority in the pro-life community,” said Franks, who unveiled the bill in January in conjunction with a press conference at the National Press Club convened by the National Right to Life Committee.

It’s highly unlikely that the bill, even once passed by the House, would subsequently pass in the Senate.  But that’s not an issue to anti-choice advocates, who say if they don’t get it via bill, they’ll just make it a condition and attach it onto some other piece of legislation that will force the government to stall if it doesn’t get passed.

Isn’t democracy wonderful?