Bill to preserve abortion rights still pushed in Congress as SCOTUS ruling on

WASHINGTON — The push for federal legislation in Congress to protect abortion rights nationwide continues as the impact of Friday’s ruling on challenges to the new Texas law is assessed and the U.S. Supreme Court mulls a ruling on a Mississippi abortion law.

Though the Court ruled Friday that abortion clinics can continue to pursue their challenge to Texas’ near-total ban on abortions, it left the Texas law in place for now and sent it back to lower courts for further consideration.

Additionally, the court heard oral arguments in a challenge to a Mississippi law that bans abortions at 15 weeks on Dec. 1, and is expected to issue a potentially monumental decision in that case in the spring or summer of next year.

Weeks after the Texas ban, known as Senate Bill 8, first took effect, the House approved a bill in September that would cement Roe vs. Wade protections into federal law and establish a women’s legal right to an abortion through legislation rather than previous Supreme Court decisions.

The House bill, known as The “Women’s Health Protection Act,” would nullify SB 8, which prohibits abortions as early as six weeks into pregnancy, and could supersede other laws restricting abortion at the state level if passed.

Sponsored by Rep. Judy Chu, D-Calif., the legislation would “protect a person’s ability to determine whether to continue or end a pregnancy” and “a health care provider’s ability to provide abortion services.”

“We need [the Women’s Health Protection Act] to pass so that no matter what happens here in the court behind us, abortion remains safe, legal and accessible,” Chu said to abortion rights supporters outside the Supreme Court on Dec. 1 while oral arguments in the Mississippi case occurred inside.

“Roe vs. Wade has been settled law for nearly 50 years,” Rep. Colin Allred, D-Dallas, said in September. “Congress must reaffirm the right of Texas women to access legal abortions and today’s vote was a first step in doing so.”

The Democratic majority in the House approved the bill 218-211. The legislation now sits in the Senate in a holding pattern, and it’s up to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., to decide when to bring it to the floor for a vote.

However, the bill’s ultimate prospects in the Senate are dim, considering the widespread Republican opposition it faced in the House and the Senate chamber’s 50-50 split between Democrats and Republicans. The bill would need 60 votes total to overcome a likely Republican filibuster.

The lone crossover vote in the House came from Laredo Rep. Henry Cuellar, who joined Republicans in opposing it. Jessica Cisneros, set to challenge Cuellar in the 2022 primary, was quick to criticize, saying he “refused to stand up for South Texas reproductive freedom.”

Rep. August Pfluger, R-San Angelo, called the federal bill “grotesque” and asserted that “Nancy Pelosi and her Democrat-majority in the House have passed a bill to legalize abortion up until birth nationwide.”

“Removing all pro-life protections for the unborn makes the United States one of the few countries in the world — alongside China and North Korea — to allow elective…