May 10, 2022 | Press Release
MINNEAPOLIS — Tomorrow the U.S. Senate is expected to vote on a motion to proceed with a sweeping bill that would enshrine abortion-until-birth into federal law and eliminate almost all existing protections for unborn children across in the country. The so-called “Women’s Health Protection Act” (S. 4132) would nullify Minnesota’s parental notification and Woman’s Right to Know informed consent requirements, as well as Minnesota’s law limiting the performance of abortion to licensed physicians.
“Senators who vote for this bill are voting for late-term abortion on babies who can feel pain,” said MCCL Executive Director Scott Fischbach. “They are voting against informed consent for women, and against parental notification when minor girls undergo abortion. These senators are showing just how far they want to go at the expense of women and children.”
The bill would invalidate virtually all state and federal protections for unborn children—even laws upheld by the Supreme Court in the past—and prohibit states from enacting such protections in the future. It would invalidate laws protecting pain-capable unborn children after 20 weeks as well as laws limiting abortion after viability, unless they allow abortion practitioners to abort if they decide that abortion will preserve emotional “health.” The bill would also wipe away limits on the use of telemedicine for chemical abortions despite the risks such abortions pose to women’s health.
“Abortion supporters in the Senate are worried that the Supreme Court, in its Dobbs v. Jackson decision, may allow Americans to determine their own abortion laws again,” said Fischbach. “As a result, these abortion supporters are trying to impose unlimited abortion nationwide. Most Americans don’t agree with this extreme and dangerous policy.”
In February, the Senate defeated a motion to proceed with an earlier version of the legislation on a 46 to 48 vote. Both Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith voted in favor of the measure.
That legislation (H.R. 3755) passed the U.S. House last September 24 on a vote of 218-211. U.S. Reps. Angie Craig, Dean Phillips, Betty McCollum, and Ilhan Omar voted for the abortion-expanding bill, while the late Rep. Jim Hagedorn and Reps. Tom Emmer, Michelle Fischbach, and Pete Stauber voted against it.