A Senate bill that would ban abortion after 20 weeks into a pregnancy is headed for a floor vote later this month.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell started the process Tuesday of putting the bill on the legislative calendar, just one week after President Trump’s State of the Union address, in which he called on lawmakers to pass the bill. A senior Republican aide pointed to a likely date of Feb. 24 for a vote.
The legislation, the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, failed in the Senate during the last Congress, with mostly Democrats opposed. Republicans Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska joined all but three Democrats in voting against the bill. Democrats voting for the bill were Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Bob Casey of Pennsylvania, and Joe Donnelly of Indiana.
The legislation is also unlikely to move ahead in the Democratic-controlled House. On Wednesday morning, a House panel held a hearing about gutting state regulations on abortions, which would include laws that ban abortions after 20 weeks of gestation.
Polling shows most voters oppose abortions later in pregnancy. Anti-abortion advocates have been pushing for a vote on the bill so that senators will go on the record about the issue ahead of the 2020 elections.
The bill would make it a crime for doctors to perform abortions after 20 weeks of gestation. Those who break the law would face a fine, up to five years in prison, or both. The legislation contains exemptions in cases of rape, incest, and if a pregnant woman’s life is in danger, but not for fetal abnormalities.
Proponents of the legislation say that a fetus can feel pain at 20 weeks, but opponents argue with that assessment and say that women who have abortions late in pregnancy tend to be faced with test results that reveal when a baby is born it will die or face lifelong disabilities.
Just over 1% of abortions, between 9,000 and 11,000 abortions a year, happen 21 weeks or later into pregnancy. There aren’t robust data about the circumstances for which women seek abortions late in pregnancy.
