McConnell commits to abortion ban vote

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell guaranteed a vote on a bill imposing a federal ban on abortions after 20 weeks of gestation, telling a conservative crowd in Washington that a vote on the divisive legislation would be “good news for our entire country.”

Though the bill passed the House earlier this year after a row over rape-reporting requirements in the legislation, the Senate’s version from Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) is a long-shot to pass the Senate’s 60-vote threshold. Several moderate Republicans like Sen. Mark Kirk of Illinois and Susan Collins of Maine are likely to oppose the legislation, and only a handful of centrist Democrats would back McConnell.


Even if the measure somehow made it through the Senate, President Barack Obama would surely veto it.

But McConnell’s latest vow to put the bill on the floor will buoy anti-abortion activists that have been pushing the majority leader to put the House-passed bill up for a vote. The bill would impose a nationwide restriction on abortions after 20 weeks and offers exceptions for rape and incest.

“A bill that protects life after 20 weeks in the womb, a bill that in the past couldn’t even get a hearing, I’ll promise you will be a getting a vote,” McConnell (R-Ky.) said at the Faith & Freedom Coalition in Washington on Friday Morning. “That’s not only good news for pro-lifers, it’s good news for our entire country.”

Republicans backers of the bill point to popular support for it in polls and tick off all the European countries that have more restrictive abortion laws than the United States. McConnell made the same argument on Friday, urging the United States to join “the ranks of most other civilized countries by protecting unborn children after 20 weeks in the womb.”

“It’s high time we did that because, I don’t know about you but I think we’re failing the country if the best thing we can offer to a scared, young mom-to-be is a referral to Planned Parenthood. Is that the best we can do?” McConnell asked as members in the crowd yelled “no” back at the majority leader. “I don’t think so.”

While he was in the minority, McConnell vowed that if Republicans took the Senate he would schedule a vote on the abortion legislation, unlike Democratic Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), who spurned any vote on the Pain Capable Unborn Protection Act. Since the 20-week federal ban passed the House in May, McConnell had made no mention of scheduling a vote on the anti-abortion legislation until Friday.

Though the matter will spark a divisive debate in the Senate that could put some of the 24 incumbent Republican senators up for tough votes in blue and purple states, anti-abortion activists view McConnell’s vocal support of the measure as a major coup. In an interview last week, Susan B. Anthony List President Marjorie Dannenfelser said that she is comfortable waiting until the fall for a vote, allowing more time for social conservatives to shore up support in the Senate and demonstrate a majority of the Senate backs banning abortions after 20 weeks, if not a filibuster-proof one.

“The leadership has been openhanded, particularly McConnell, every single step of the way,” Dannenfelser said. “I’m very optimistic about his following through on the commitment, it’s just the timeline I’m not 100 percent on. I think fall is reasonable and realistic.”