Saturday, September 25, 2021
Law still unlikely
US House of Representatives votes for abortion law
It is a sign against the tightening of abortion laws in many US states: The US House of Representatives is voting for a law on the right to abortion. The advance is historic, but there is a high probability that it will not be successful.
For the first time, the US House of Representatives has launched a push to enshrine the right to abortion in federal law. The Congress Chamber, controlled by President Joe Biden’s Democrats, voted on Friday with 218 to 211 votes for a corresponding bill. However, the vote was largely symbolic, as the proposed law has little prospect of being passed in the Senate.
Nevertheless, it was a historic step, as it was the first time that one of the two chambers of the US Congress attempted to make the fundamental judgment “Roe v. Wade” a law. In the 1973 ruling, the Supreme Court enshrined the right of women to have an abortion. So far, even large parts of the Democrats have shied away from attempts to legally establish the right to an abortion, because the issue divides US society. “We finally have a majority of Democrats in the Chamber who are in favor of the right to abortion,” said Democratic leader of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, at a press conference before the vote.
President Joe Biden also endorsed the draft of the “Women’s Health Protection Act”. However, the text is unlikely to get through in the Senate, where the Democrats have a slim majority. Numerous Republican-ruled states are currently trying to restrict abortion law.
The country’s strictest abortion law went into effect in early September in Texas. It prohibits abortion from the moment the fetus’s heartbeat can be determined. This is the case from around the sixth week of pregnancy, when many women do not even know that they are pregnant. Even in the case of rape or incest, the law does not provide for any exceptions.