The US House of Representatives on Friday passed two bills aimed at protecting access to abortion after the Supreme Court ruled that individual states can ban or restrict the procedure.
However, the legislation passed by the Democratic-controlled House is unlikely to advance in the Senate, where 10 Republican votes would be needed to get the measures moving.
“Just three weeks ago, the Supreme Court destroyed fundamental rights by finding Roe v. Wade,” said Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, referring to the landmark case that enshrined legal access to abortion.
“That’s why our pro-choice, pro-women Democratic majority stands resolutely today,” Pelosi said. “We will take further action to defend women’s reproductive freedom.”
The first bill, the Women’s Health Protection Act, passed with only Democrat support, would legalize abortion throughout the United States.
The House of Representatives passed a similar bill last year, but it failed in the Senate.
The other law, passed on Friday, would provide legal protections for women who leave one state to have an abortion in another.
Several conservative states have already banned abortion since the Supreme Court ruling, and about half of the 50 US states are expected to impose near or total bans in the coming weeks or months.
Democratic President Joe Biden has denounced last month’s Conservative-dominated Supreme Court abortion ruling and urged Americans to turn out in large numbers in November’s midterm elections.
However, the party in power tends to perform poorly in the midterms, and the Democrats risk losing their majority in the House of Representatives and their narrow hold in the Senate.
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