Senate Democrats blocked an attempt by Republicans to ban most abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy, an outcome that was all but certain as the prospect of a government shutdown looms.
The vote was the culmination of hours of debate on the issue over two days, with Democrats accusing Republicans of using the bill to pander to their conservative base during an election cycle while Republicans urged Democrats to accept that fetuses can feel pain at this stage in a pregnancy, a contention disputed by medical research. The bill fell six votes short of the 60 it needed to pass, with senators voting largely along party lines.
Ahead of the vote, the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, a Republican from Kentucky, drew a line between Democrats’ pro-choice views and the bill his party was trying to pass.
“We in this chamber are never going to agree completely on the abortion question,” McConnell said. “But we should at least be able to agree that if an unborn child has reached the point where he or she can feel pain, that child’s life deserves protection.”
Democrats, citing medical research, dispute the science behind the assertion that fetuses can feel pain at 20 weeks.
“More than 40 years ago, the supreme court stipulated that abortion is legal until a fetus is viable,” said Dianne Feinstein, a California Democrat, during a floor speech on Monday. “Well, in no way, shape or form is a 20-week fetus viable.” She noted that the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists has found fetal pain is unlikely to occur as early as 20 weeks, a finding Republicans disputed on Tuesday.
Feinstein said the bill was “part of a sustained assault on a woman’s access to healthcare and her right to make decisions for herself and her family”.
Under the bill, pregnant women whose lives are in danger would be able to have an abortion, but the bill makes no exceptions for fetal abnormalities that are typically detected in later stages of pregnancy. A rape victim would have to seek counselling or medical care in the 48 hours prior to an abortion. Minors who are victims of rape or incest would be allowed an abortion if they were to report the assault to law enforcement officials.
Breaking with her party, Senator Susan Collins, a Republican from Maine, voted against what she called a “well-meaning but flawed” bill.
“Do we want her doctor to be unable to perform an abortion because he faces the prospect of years in prison if he terminates her pregnancy?” Collins asked. She also said that the language around the rape and incest exceptions was “problematic”.
Collins said she would support a measure to ban abortions after 20 weeks only if it included clear exemptions for cases when the mother’s life was in danger or when the woman has become pregnant through rape or incest.
Pro-choice advocates note that it is extremely rare for women to seek abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy, accounting for just over 1% of all abortions performed in the United States, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Typically, procedures performed at this stage involve rare fetal abnormalities or a serious health risk to the mother.
The bill was prompted by conservative backlash to a series of undercover videos in which Planned Parenthood employees discuss the use of fetal tissue obtained during abortion procedures. Planned Parenthood denies all accusations of wrongdoing made by the pro-life group behind the video.
The videos have prompted several investigations by Congress into Planned Parenthood and reinvigorated calls by Republicans to defund the organization. On the campaign trail, conservatives have made abortion and Planned Parenthood key issues.
A coalition of conservative Republicans has threatened a showdown over a spending bill if it includes funding for Planned Parenthood. But Democrats, whose votes are needed to pass the measure, have said they will not support a bill that cuts off funding for the organization. Obama has also threatened to veto such a bill, which could trigger a government shutdown come 1 October, the start of the new fiscal year.
Some Democrats questioned the timing of the vote, just one day ahead of Pope Francis’s papal address to Congress, while others accused McConnell of wasting time on a bill the majority leader knew wouldn’t pass while a government shutdown looms.
“We want to move forward and get the government funding,” said the Senate minority leader, Harry Reid of Nevada. “We’re at a crossroads here and I’m not sure we can make it.”
On Monday night, Wendy Davis, a former state senator in Texas, weighed in on the Planned Parenthood debate during a live interview at Mic News headquarters in New York. Davis said she believed there was “lemonade to be made” of the Republican party’s recent rhetoric against abortion rights, by motivating Democrats to ramp up voter outreach.
Davis rose to national prominence in 2013 after staging an 11-hour filibuster against a restrictive Texas abortion bill known as House Bill 5.
“It is completely disgusting to watch,” she said of some Republicans’ threat to shut down the government over Planned Parenthood by pledging not to vote for a spending bill that includes funds for the organization.
“It’s not a conversation about abortion care,” she said. “This is a conversation about cutting off funds for the 97% of the work that Planned Parenthood does outside the abortion arena.”
