Democrats have a lengthy wish list for Pope Francis when he addresses Congress this week. But Republicans are seizing on the Catholic leader’s historic visit to make good on one of their top social priorities: Tough new abortion restrictions.

As they rally behind a long-awaited measure that would ban abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy, GOP lawmakers are tying their messaging to the teachings of the Catholic Church, which opposes the practice. And the presence of Pope Francis on Capitol Hill this week shines an even brighter spotlight on the legislation, which has long been a top priority of advocacy groups that oppose abortion.


And GOP lawmakers are urging Pope Francis to use his unprecedented platform before Congress to spread a message that calls for restricting abortion.

“The message to the Pope is … there are only seven countries in the world that allow abortion this late, at five months,” said Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.), a former Christian camp director who has become one of the Senate’s most prominent voices against abortion. “And I’d like us to not be one of them.”

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has teed up a procedural vote for Tuesday morning on the 20-week abortion ban, although near-unanimous Democratic opposition will almost surely sink the bill. Despite that predictable outcome, Republicans and abortion opponents believe that just holding a vote is an important symbolic victory after the measure languished without floor consideration for years.

Opponents of abortion have made a ban at 20 weeks -- which is a few weeks earlier than viability outside of the womb, which is the current legal threshold – their top legislative priority. Advocates such as National Right to Life and the Susan B. Anthony List have been lobbying all of the Republican presidential contenders to pledge to support the legislation as president.

“It will at least increase awareness,” Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), who is Catholic, said of the Pope’s visit to the abortion-ban vote. “I think the one thing you find with this particular policy, it tends to be more broadly supported than any other issues around the pro-life agenda that I support.”

Added Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) of the abortion-ban legislation: “There’s clearly an alignment [with the Catholic church] on the issue.”

Prohibiting abortion has long been a top priority of the Catholic Church and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. Pope Francis has maintained that policy position, although he said earlier this month that for one year, all priests can formally forgive women who have undergone the procedure.

“I am well aware of the pressure that has led them to this decision,” Francis said in a letter released by the Vatican on Sept. 1. “I know that it is an existential and moral ordeal. I have met so many women who bear in their heart the scar of this agonizing and painful decision.”

But the abortion ban vote has benefits for GOP leaders beyond just from a Pope-fueled messaging opportunity. Top Republicans hope the 20-week vote, as well as standalone measures on defunding Planned Parenthood and targeted investigations into the group, will relieve the escalating pressure from conservatives to use must-pass government funding to strip federal money from the women’s health group.

With just 10 days until the federal government runs out of cash, Republican leaders have not put up a way out of the funding conundrum that has flummoxed the GOP-run Capitol. Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and other top House Republicans haven't coalesced around a government funding strategy that averts a government shutdown and calms the restive right flank eager to oust Boehner.

Meanwhile, Senate GOP leaders have started to draft an endgame if the House keeps struggling to send senators a bill: After the abortion-ban vote, take up a short-term funding measure cutting off money to Planned Parenthood, which has come under fire from conservatives after sting videos surfaced of the group’s officials allegedly discussing sales of fetal tissue.

That vote would fail. Next, McConnell would bring up a so-called “clean” funding bill without the defunding provision, which is expected to be able to pass the Senate. But the tortoise-like pace of the chamber—where any one lawmaker could drag out the timeline—could run the Senate right up to the Sept. 30 deadline.

Republicans have also floated using budget reconciliation – a fast-track procedure that would allow the GOP to avoid a Democratic-led filibuster in the Senate – as a way to get a defunding measure to President Barack Obama’s desk. But there’s been no consensus yet among Republicans on that strategy.

“This is a serious time for our country, and we’ve got to get past [the] 20-week abortion ban show votes because the Pope’s coming,” Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said last week. “We’ve got to get past the Planned Parenthood votes and re-voting three times on the Iran agreement. We’ve got to move on to get something.”

Though Tuesday’s vote tally will split mostly among partisan lines, some moderates are expected to break from their party. Among Democrats, Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Bob Casey of Pennsylvania, both Catholics, will support the 20-week abortion ban, their aides said.

Another potential Democratic vote for the ban is Sen. Joe Donnelly of Indiana, who also voted with Republicans on a standalone measure to defund Planned Parenthood before the August break. His office did not return requests for comment.

Meanwhile, a spokeswoman for North Dakota Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, another moderate Democrat, signaled that the senator would oppose the bill: “Senator Heitkamp believes reproductive decisions should be left to a woman, her family, and her doctor, and it isn’t up to the government to determine what that timeline should be.”

Among Republicans, Sen. Susan Collins of Maine said Thursday that she’s not sure how she will vote.

“I am not for late-term abortions but I think obviously there have to be some exceptions and I’m just starting to look at the language,” she said.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska has not weighed in and Illinois Sen. Mark Kirk, perhaps the most vulnerable Republican incumbent up for reelection in 2016, is seen as a likely opponent of the ban.

But other in-cycle Republicans haven’t been reticent to endorse the bill. GOP Sens. Richard Burr of North Carolina, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, Rob Portman of Ohio and Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania are all co-sponsors of the Senate version of the 20-week abortion, written by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.). And Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.), also up in 2016, has opposed late-term abortions in the past.

“I think this is a very appropriate and moderate pro-life vote to have particularly with Pope Francis being in Washington,” said Mississippi Sen. Roger Wicker, the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, which is charged with protecting the host of incumbent GOP senators in blue states.

He added: “I wouldn’t be at all surprised that pro-life groups prefer that vote to a Planned Parenthood vote."

Planned Parenthood and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists oppose the bill.

But for most Democrats, the abortion ban vote--as well as the continued feud over defunding the women’s health group—was nothing more than time wasted as the clock ticks down toward a government shutdown with no solution in sight.

“I think people know the score on this issue,” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) said. “We’re not going to discover anybody’s position that we didn’t know. It’s not gonna make the passage of the budget any faster. So you know, I’m just not sure what gets accomplished [this] week by taking this vote.”