Major anti-abortion groups are not pressing for the Senate to eliminate the filibuster, even though a proposed late-term abortion ban seems certain to fail without Republicans taking action.
While President Trump and the sponsor of the House version of the legislation that would ban abortions after 20 weeks have called for the end to the legislative filibuster, groups such as March for Life Action and National Right to Life are not. Neither is the sponsor of the Senate version of the ban: Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.
Anti-abortion groups have been relishing GOP control of Congress and a Republican in the White House, but they been stymied by the legislative filibuster for several high-profile abortion bills. The filibuster also halted a bill to make permanent the Hyde Amendment, a spending rider that prevents federal funding from paying for abortions.
Despite the setbacks, some groups say they do not support eliminating the filibuster, which needs 60 votes to break.
“Right now, pro-life Republicans are in charge of both houses, and we’ve got the White House,” said Carol Tobias, president of National Right to Life, shortly after a press conference Thursday introducing the Senate version of the 20-week ban. “We don’t know in a couple of years down the road what is going to happen.”
March for Life Action, the legislative arm of the anti-abortion group that stages the annual March for Life, is also opposed to changing the filibuster.
“If a procedural vote were to be brought up about changing the legislative filibuster we would go so far as to score it as opposition to it,” said Tom McClusky, March for Life Action’s president.
The issue for anti-abortion groups is what happens when power changes hands.
Mallory Quigley, communications director for the anti-abortion group Susan B. Anthony’s List, told the Washington Examiner that the group doesn’t have a position on the legislative filibuster.
She said she could see “both sides” of the issue and that it does cut both ways.
Quigley pointed to failed bills such as the Freedom of Choice Act, a bill re-introduced in 2004 that would have made abortion a fundamental right. She also pointed to another failed bill from Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., called the Women’s Health Protection Act that would have prohibited states from imposing abortion restrictions.
“If they were in charge and the filibuster was not there, then the legislation would completely undo everything we fought for at the state level,” she told the Washington Examiner at the press conference.
Tobias took solace in the Senate ending the filibuster for Supreme Court justices, which paved the way for confirmation of conservative justice Neil Gorsuch.
“We can elect pro-life people, and we get pro-life legislation passed, and it goes before some judge who decides ‘I don’t like that law, and you can strike it down,'” she said. “What the Senate did by getting rid of the filibuster for judges is going to have a much longer and greater impact than anything they do legislatively right now.”
McClusky said he realized his group’s position puts it at odds with Rep. Trent Franks, R-Ariz., who sponsored the House version of the 20-week abortion ban.
Trump called for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to end the legislative filibuster after the Senate’s inability to pass Obamacare repeal, which included defunding Planned Parenthood for one year. McConnell has been reticent to end the filibuster.
Graham, lead sponsor of the 20-week pain capable abortion ban in the Senate, said he opposed ending the filibuster during the press conference introducing the legislation.
He said he believes the bill will get 60 votes over “the arc of time.”
The legislation received three Democratic votes when it was voted on in 2015, and anti-abortion groups are hoping to get more this time.
“Our mission is flipping votes on this and encouraging Democrats to vote for it,” Quigley said. “This is something [Democrat Heidi] Heitkamp should vote for.”
Heitkamp is up for reelection in 2018 in North Dakota, a state that voted for Trump by 36 percentage points.
But the fate of the bill is up in the air. Graham told the Washington Examiner after his press conference that he has spoken with McConnell about scheduling a vote but hasn’t received a guarantee.
Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, the second-ranking GOP senator, said after the House passed the late-term abortion ban that it wasn’t a “near-term priority” in the Senate, according to CNN.
McClusky said the group has talked to McConnell about holding a vote. He hopes that Senate leadership decides to hold one even though it appears likely to fail to reach 60.
“Even though you know they are going to lose, it is still good to move the ball forward,” he said.
