Trump's SCOTUS Changes Embolden GOPers To Push Anti-Abortion Bills

[DonViejo]

By DAVID CRARY

February 7, 2019 10:12 am

President Donald Trump’s call for a ban on late-term abortions is unlikely to prevail in Congress, but Republican legislators in several states are pushing ahead with their own tough anti-abortion bills that they hope can pass muster with the Supreme Court.

Two bills proposing to outlaw abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detected, as early as six weeks into a pregnancy, advanced out of House and Senate committees in the Mississippi Legislature this week, with GOP Gov. Phil Bryant pledging to sign either into law.

Efforts to pass similar bills are underway in Florida, Kentucky, Ohio, South Carolina and Tennessee. In Ohio, former Republican Gov. John Kasich twice vetoed the measure, but his GOP successor, Mike DeWine, has pledged to sign it. In Tennessee, Republican Gov. Bill Lee and the top two GOP state lawmakers say they support the measure.

Iowa passed a heartbeat bill last year that was struck down by a state judge on Jan. 22. In response, many GOP lawmakers are seeking to place a proposed constitutional amendment on the ballot that would stipulate there is no right to abortion in the Iowa Constitution.

Trump, in his State of the Union speech Tuesday night, cited recent controversies in New York and Virginia over late-term abortions before urging Congress “to prohibit the late-term abortion of children who can feel pain in a mother’s womb.” Legislation to achieve that goal failed to win passage even when Republicans controlled both chambers of Congress, and has virtually no chance of success now that Democrats control the House.

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