According to Republican South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, a national 15-week abortion ban proposed Tuesday in the Senate is “intended to mitigate the pain of an unborn child.”
Research indicates “the neural circuitry for pain in fetuses is immature,” and that “the developmental processes necessary for the mindful experience of pain are not yet developed.” Other researchers have argued that fetal pain (as a core, immediate, sensation) could be possible from 12 to 24 weeks of gestation and proposed the use of a fetal analgesic during abortions.
This summer, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the landmark Roe v. Wade decision that protected abortion access in the nation for decades. After the opinion was leaked early to POLITICO in May, national support for abortion access in all cases reached its highest levels since the 1990s, according to Gallup.
According to May Gallup poll results, 67% of Americans believe abortion should be legal during the first three months of pregnancy and 36% think it should be legal in the second three months.
Following the GOP bill proposal, the American Civil Liberties Union, Democrat House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and others responded with criticism.
“This is a transparent attempt by Sen. Graham and extreme politicians to force the nightmare unfolding across the country on people in every state in the country,” said Julie Sweet, director of the Liberty Division of the American Civil Liberties Union. “Make no mistake, this bill signals the dangerous future we face if anti-abortion extremists take control of Congress. Anti-abortion extremists won’t be satisfied until abortion care is banned completely across the country and women are forced to carry pregnancies against their will.”
Pelosi also characterized the attempt as “extreme” and said it was part of an agenda for “MAGA Republicans,” referring to Republicans who are supporters of former President Donald Trump. Earlier this month, President Joe Biden singled this segment of the GOP out for their “extreme ideology.”
Graham insisted in tweet rebuttals to Pelosi’s statement that opposing the proposed legislation would put the U.S. at odds with the “mainstream of the world.” He painted her party as “radicals and said “the Democrat desire for abortion on demand up until the moment of birth puts us in a club of seven that includes North Korea and China.”
Pelosi argued that Graham and other MAGA Republicans true aim is to “pass laws even more draconian than this bill – just like the bans they have enacted in states like Texas, Mississippi and Oklahoma.”
A recent poll in Texas, where there are restrictive abortion laws, found that 60% of people there actually support legal abortion in all or most cases. In West Virginia, a near total ban on abortion was passed Tuesday.
“We will never, ever stop fighting for our right to abortion,” said the ACLU when the decision was announced.
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