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The GOP is considering a 15-week ban on abortion following the demise of the constitutional right to the procedure, according to influential anti-abortion legislator Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ).
Smith is the chief backer of the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, which would outlaw the procedure after the 20th week of pregnancy. But Republicans are expected to shorten the deadline for obtaining an abortion still further, Smith told CNN.
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“We’re working on something along those lines,” Smith said. “I have the Pain-Capable at 20 weeks. We’re going to lower it to 15. There are all kinds of ideas there.”
The bill was first introduced in 2013 and has passed out of a Republican-controlled House several times — first in 2013, then in 2015, and finally in 2017. While the party does not currently have a chance of overcoming a veto or a filibuster to get the bill past the finish line, Republicans are expected to take it back up if and when Democrats lose their majorities in either the House or Senate or both in November.
Smith, who has been strongly anti-abortion for decades, celebrated the Supreme Court’s decision on Friday, saying, “The hope and moral imperative to protect innocent children’s lives from extermination couldn’t come a moment too soon.”
Smith’s anti-abortion legislation will be one of several up for debate if the GOP retakes the Congress in November. For example, Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse’s Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act and its House companion bill from Rep. Ann Wagner (R-MO) remain stalled in committees but could soon be revived.
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Another more restrictive bill that could advance under Republican leadership is a ban on the procedure once a heartbeat has been detected, a policy that has already been enacted in states such as Texas and Oklahoma and will be allowed to move forward in other states where it was blocked by court order. The federal heartbeat bill has the support of 111 Republicans in the House.
