Republican senators are looking to build support among Democrats and some of their GOP colleagues for a vote next week on a bill to ban abortions after 20 weeks.
The vote, scheduled for Monday, is expected to fail, since it is highly unlikely it will reach the 60-vote threshold needed to break a filibuster. However, anti-abortion groups plan to single out vulnerable senators up for re-election this year who vote against the ban.
“Clearly, we need more votes, but at some point when you start to get closer and senators in vulnerable states start to feel the heat, then it starts to look very optimistic,” Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the anti-abortion group Susan B. Anthony List, said on a call with reporters Thursday.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., the bill’s main sponsor, said on the call he hopes to drum up more Democratic support than the last time the ban was brought up for an unsuccessful vote in 2015. He said Democrats will feel pressure because more states — now 20 — ban abortion after 20 weeks.
“I am sure some Democrats eventually are gonna come our way,” he said. Graham said the ban is important since the U.S. is one of only seven countries that provide on-demand abortions after 20 weeks.
“Because the baby can feel extreme pain at 20 weeks, the government should and can protect that baby from procedures that cause extreme pain,” he said.
In 2015, the Senate defeated a 20-week abortion ban by a vote of 54-42, with three Democrats voting for it and two Republicans voting against it.
Democratic Sens. Bob Casey of Pennsylvania, Joe Donnelly of Indiana, and Joe Manchin of West Virginia voted for the ban. All three have committed to voting for it again, according to multiple reports.
Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and former Republican Sen. Mark Kirk of Illinois, who lost re-election in 2016 to Tammy Duckworth, voted against it.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, was 1 of 4 senators who did not vote on the ban in 2015.
Murkowski and Collins told the Washington Examiner Thursday that they have concerns about the language surrounding the exemption for women.
“I support a ban on late-term abortions, but I’m very troubled by some of the language that is in the bill,” Collins said. “I have suggested some changes, and we’ll see what happens.”
The bill gives exceptions if the abortion is necessary to save the life of the mother or when the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest.
Graham said he is willing to work with his colleagues on the language, up to a point.
“I try to work with everybody, but I just don’t want to lose sight of the goal,” he said. “Exceptions can basically destroy the concept. We have exceptions well-defined.”
For instance, the bill does not offer an exception for an abortion in the case of the health of the mother, only for the “life” of the mother, because that exception can be too “amorphous and something you can drive a legal truck through,” Graham said.
It is not clear if the ban’s backers can get any more support from Democrats.
Manchin and Donnelly are both up for re-election in states that President Trump won by large margins. Sens. Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota and Claire McCaskill of Missouri also are up for re-election in pro-Trump states. Both voted against the ban in 2015.
McCaskill and Heitkamp did not return requests for comment on whether they will vote against the ban this time.
The newest member of the Senate, Democrat Doug Jones of Alabama, is also undecided. Jones was elected by a narrow margin last year and has been an advocate for abortion rights. He told the Washington Examiner he is “inclined to vote against it.”
“I need to look at the real specifics,” he said. “That’s one of those issues that the devil is in the details, and I want to look at the real specifics. But I am a little concerned about what I’ve heard … [from] different sides.”
Dannenfelser said the group aims to target senators up for re-election this year who vote against the ban.
“We promise that in several of these states where it will have the highest impact we will take our troops door to door,” she said.
• Washington Examiner Senior Healthcare Writer Kimberly Leonard contributed to this report.
