Senate Democrats Fail To Pass Women's Health Protection Act
The bill's language was vague, defining the woman's health to include emotional and familial factors.
Editorial Team
May 12, 2022
On Wednesday, Democrats failed to pass the Women’s Health Protection Act, legislation that would put abortion into federal law and ban states from restricting abortion. But it’s more than that.
The bill would guarantee late-term abortion. On paper, it just guarantees abortion access before 23 weeks. After that, the bill would assure the right to abortion if there is a “health” risk. The language is vague to allow “health” to be defined “to include mental, emotional or familial factors, a loophole that permits elective abortions, more or less, through all nine months of pregnancy.”
The bill also exempts itself from the Religious Freedom Restoration act. This would force health care providers of all faiths to provide abortions regardless of religious reasons.
50 Republicans and Sen. Joe Manchin opposed the bill.
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