House To Vote On Abortion Bill In Response To New Texas Law

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced on Thursday that the House would vote on a bill to guarantee individuals have access to abortions later this month. The announcement was made in response to the Supreme Court failing to block Texas’ six-week abortion ban.

The bill was introduced by Representative Judy Chu of California back in June.

The lawmakers want to protect an individual’s ability to access health providers for abortion services.

Texas’ abortion ban, which went into effect on Wednesday, allows private citizens to file lawsuits against women seeking abortions and providers and individuals that assist with the process. Under the new Texas law, private citizens can be awarded more than $10,000 for successful suits.

“This ban necessitates codifying Roe v. Wade,” the House Speaker said.

“Upon our return, the House will bring up Congresswoman Judy Chu’s Women’s Health Protection Act to enshrine into law reproductive health care for all women across America,” Speaker Pelosi said.

“SB8 unleashes one of the most disturbing, unprecedented and far-reaching assaults on health care providers – and on anyone who helps a woman, in any way, access an abortion – by creating a vigilante bounty system that will have a chilling effect on the provision of any reproductive health care services. This provision is a cynical, backdoor attempt by partisan lawmakers to evade the Consitution and the law to destroy not only a woman’s right to health care but potentially any right or protection that partisan lawmakers target.”

The House will return from recess on September 20, 2021.

“We have seen what the Republicans will do in ultra-conservative state legislatures across the country to quash the constitutional rights of Americas, and this ruling needs to be an urgent call to action for my Senate Democratic colleagues,” Senator Ed Markey said.

48 of 50 Democratic Senators have signed on to the companion bill. The two lone holdouts are Senators Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Bob Casey of Pennslyvania.  The bill would need sixty votes to pass in the Senate, which is unlikely.

Democratic lawmakers have released statements and tweets criticizing the United States Supreme Court for not applying an emergency block against the Texas legislation.

“The Supreme Court’s cowardly, dark-of-night decision to uphold a flagrantly unconstitutional assault on women’s rights and health is staggering,” Pelosi said. “That this radically partisan Court chose to do so without a full briefing, oral arguments or providing a full, signed opinion is shameful.”

About RavenH

Raven Haywood is a journalist for 10+ years. Graduate from Howard University.

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