With their newly-acquired majority, House Republicans are moving quickly on abortion, passing two bills on Wednesday that make it plain they want more restrictions after the Supreme Court struck down the federal right to abortion last year.
The new GOP-led House passed a resolution denouncing assaults on pro-life organisations, including crisis pregnancy centres, as well as a separate bill creating new penalties for doctors who decline to treat a baby born alive following an abortion attempt.
Both are unlikely to pass the Democratic-controlled Senate, but Republicans said they were keeping their word after promising to take up the matter and other legislative goals in their first days in office.
"You don't have freedom, true liberty, unless government safeguards your most fundamental right, your right to life," declared Jim Jordan, a new Republican chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, who oversaw discussion of the bills.
Even yet, the two bills don't exactly make a dramatic statement against abortion, which has become politically difficult for Republicans since since the Supreme Court reversed Roe v. Wade in June, nearly 50 years after it was decided, and empowered states to impose near-total or complete abortion prohibitions. Many Republicans have rejected the idea of expanding the verdict with a national ban or a compromise restriction that would restrict abortions after a certain point. And it is now obvious that the majority of Americans would be against it.
Republicans are overwhelmingly opposed to legalising abortion "for any reason" and after 15 weeks of pregnancy, according to a July AP-NORC poll. However, a majority of Republicans, 56%, believe that states should normally permit abortion up to six weeks into a pregnancy. Only 16% of Republicans believe that abortion should be "illegal in all situations." 61% of respondents indicated they were in support of a law ensuring access to legal abortion on a national level, according to AP VoteCast, a national survey of the midterm electorate.
Some Republicans are sceptical about the party's past vehement opposition to abortion rights due to the general opinion.
According to Mace, "this is probably not the way to start off the week."
Republicans who backed the two bills made a point of avoiding any comparisons to overturning Roe and emphasised their restricted focus.
Rep. Ann Wagner of Missouri, a Republican and the bill's author, insisted that the Supreme Court ruling had nothing to do with the legislation.
The legislation approved on Wednesday, according to Georgia Representative Barry Loudermilk, reflects Republican aspirations for quick abortion access. More significant reforms, such as a ban on abortion, still "need to be discussed," according to House Republicans, he added.
For the time being, Loudermilk believes the states should handle the situation, "else we start muddying the waters again."
Democrats vehemently opposed the proposals, believing that Republicans were merely laying the framework for a federal ban, emboldened by widespread opposition to the Supreme Court ruling.
Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York declared that "the disparities between our side of the aisle and their side of the aisle couldn't be any clearer."
Democrats condemned the resolution denouncing assaults on pro-life organisations as being biassed because it failed to denounce comparable, long-standing violence against abortion clinics. Jerrold Nadler, a New York representative and the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, described the resolution as "woefully insufficient."
Democrats claimed that since abortion is already against the law to kill a newborn, the proposal adding extra punishments for doctors is superfluous. They claimed it would result in complex new requirements that would make it more difficult for health providers to do their duties.
Rep. Judy Chu, D-Calif., called it "a mean-spirited solution in pursuit of a problem."
The Democratic-led House voted to reinstate abortion rights across the board last summer, but the legislation was defeated in the splintered Senate. By outlawing what proponents claim are medically pointless limitations that prevent access to safe and affordable abortions, the bill would have strengthened the protections Roe had previously offered.
The Senate is likely to treat the GOP legislation similarly this session. According to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Americans chose Senate Democrats "to be a bulwark" against the extremist ideas of the Republican Party.
Republicans are demonstrating how dangerously disconnected from ordinary America, according to Schumer.
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