The House of Representatives sent the same proposal to the Senate last year, and the plan subsequently failed, reports the Axios news website. Procedural rules of the smaller of the two chambers of Congress allow any member to block legislative proposals if they do not have the support of at least 60 senators. The Senate has been divided 50-50 between Democrats and Republicans since last January, with only two female senators from the Republican camp supporting abortion rights in the past.
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In the past almost 50 years, American women have been guaranteed the right to terminate a pregnancy up to about its 24th week by the Supreme Court’s verdict in the Roe vs. Wade case. In it, the court ruled that American lawmakers could not ban abortion because of a passage in the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution regarding the denial of personal liberty.
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In June, however, five conservative members of the nine-judge court overturned the precedent and put the regulation of abortion back in the hands of the American states or Congress.
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The proposal passed in the House of Representatives by a vote of 219 to 210 would enact the previously valid interpretation of the Constitution. It would prevent states from banning abortion until the stage of pregnancy when the fetus is able to survive outside the womb. In addition, it would prohibit requiring patients to make “medically unnecessary personal visits” before performing the procedure.
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After the enactment of the right to abortion in recent months, US President Joe Biden has repeatedly called for it, and he faces criticism from some party colleagues that he is not acting forcefully enough on the matter. In late June, he said lawmakers should make an exception to the Senate’s rules of procedure in this regard, if necessary. A simple majority would be sufficient for this, but even this scenario is not very realistic, as at least two Democratic senators have long been against the weakening of the obstruction and there is no indication that they would change their position now.
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In addition to restoring federal abortion rights, Democratic congressmen are also proposing a measure that would guarantee pregnant women and girls the ability to travel to another state for an abortion. They also want to enforce the enactment of the right to contraception next week.
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Meanwhile, Republicans are imposing strict restrictions on abortion in states across the US, often with no exceptions for rape victims. They have also already introduced a proposal in the House to ban federal abortions from the moment an embryo’s heartbeat can be detected. Some Republican lawmakers refer to abortion as “baby murder.”
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