Pro-abortion Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi today sent out a “Dear Colleague” letter addressing the leaked draft of a ruling by Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito which called for Roe to be overturned. Chief Justice John Roberts stated that while the draft is authentic, it did not “represent a decision by the Court or the final position of any member on the issues in the case.”
Speaker Pelosi, after enumerated a litany of “horror stories,” wrote that “While Republicans want to punish and control women for exercising their constitutional rights, Democrats believe that a woman’s health decisions are her own – and we will fight relentlessly to enshrine Roe v. Wade as the law of the land.”
How would the Democrats accomplished that—“enshrine Roe v. Wade as the law of the land”? (But, in truth, they are proposing legislation that does not stop there. It would invalidate even those law upheld by the Court after Roe was decided.)
However last March, the Senate failed to “invoke cloture”: The bill needed 60 votes in order to move on and failed by a vote of 46 to 48. This extremist legislation failed to even garner a majority of U.S. Senators.
Speaker Pelosi first thanked “the devoted leadership of author Congresswoman Judy Chu and House Democrats for passing the Women’s Health Protection Act last fall” and then reminded her caucus that
“This week, the Senate will again bring up this vital legislation for a vote. We know we must carry forward this fight in the weeks and months ahead. Our proud pro-choice House Majority must continue this fight in the public arena so that the American people know that their rights are on the ballot this November.”
As is customary, Pelosi misstated the sweep of Women’s Health Protection Act. NRLC has labeled this legislation as the “Abortion-Without-Limits-Until Birth Act.” NRL President Carol Tobias said “This legislation shows just how rigid and uncompromising the Democratic Party has become on abortion.”
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Among the protective laws that the bill would nullify:
- Nearly all Federal limits on taxpayer funding of abortion;
- Conscience protection laws allowing medical professionals to opt-out of providing abortions;
- Requirements to provide women seeking abortion with specific information on their unborn child;
- Laws providing reflection periods (waiting periods);
- Laws requiring parental consent or notification for minors seeking an abortion;
- Laws limiting the performance of abortions to licensed physicians;
- Bans on elective abortion after 20 weeks when an unborn child is capable of feeling pain;
- Requirements to provide women with information on alternatives to abortion;
- Bans on the use of abortion as a method of sex selection, and abortions done based on a diagnosis of a disability, including Down Syndrome.
“This legislation would quash nearly all existing protective state laws,” said Jennifer Popik, J.D., director of Federal Legislation for National Right to Life. “In addition, this legislation also would have prohibited states from adopting new protective laws in the future, even laws specifically upheld as constitutionally permissible by the U.S. Supreme Court.”
Popik continued, “With this bill, elective abortion would have become the procedure that must always be facilitated – never delayed, never impeded to the slightest degree.”
LifeNews.com Note: Dave Andrusko is the editor of National Right to Life News and an author and editor of several books on abortion topics. This post originally appeared in at National Right to Life News Today —- an online column on pro-life issues.
