Connecticut Democrat Senator Richard Blumenthal’s Radical Abortion Bill Rejected by U.S. Senate

Susan Berry, PhD

Connecticut Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT)’s radical abortion legislation that would have overridden state pro-life laws was defeated in the U.S. Senate Monday evening.

The Senate voted, 46-48, to reject a bill Democrats called the Women’s Health Protection Act, which would have embedded abortion on demand, at any time during pregnancy, into federal law, making invalid most individual state pro-life laws.

Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) was the sole Democrat to vote with Republicans against the measure, while Senator Bob Casey, Jr. (D-PA), who often claims to be “pro-life,” voted to advance the legislation.

On the floor of the Senate, Blumenthal called this era – during which pro-life legislation has been passed in many states as the nation awaits the decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization – “a time of unparalleled attack on equal access to abortion care.”

Prior to the vote, Blumenthal said during a press conference that abortionists are “risking their lives as we stand here.”

“They are making possible women controlling decisions about when and whether to become pregnant, the fundamental right that we are seeking to protect,” he continued, adding:

And across the country, the staff of those clinics – I visited Planned Parenthood in New Haven this morning – and met with the staff there to tell them, “We are going to stand with you, whatever the result of this vote today, we are going to stand with you and we are going to hold accountable every senator who votes against this bill.”

“Make no mistake, reproductive freedoms will be on the ballot this November,” Blumenthal said. “And we will make sure that the women of America know how you voted, and the men as well, because reproductive health care is health care for women, but it’s not just a woman’s right. It is a constitutional right. It affects men as well as women.”

However, a recent Knights of Columbus/Marist Poll found 71 percent of Americans support restrictions on abortion, including 49 percent of Democrats, 93 percent of Republicans, and 70 percent of Independents.

Planned Parenthood CEO Alexis McGill Johnson said while the rejection of the legislation is “disappointing,” abortion activists made “progress … towards protecting abortion access.”

In a speech on the floor of the Senate prior to the vote, Senator Steve Daines (R-MT), who chairs the chamber’s pro-life caucus, said the Democrats’ radical abortion legislation “would impose a horrifying abortion regime across the country that violates the right to life and is completely contrary to the kind of nation America is and aspires to be.”

“In this bill’s America, a pregnant mother could elect to have a birth-day abortion for a full-term, eight-pound baby on the day of the baby’s due date,” Daines said, adding the bill “ignores the science entirely – and would erase unborn children and even the most modest protections for their right to life from the laws of every state.”

Senator Roger Marshall (R-KS), an OB/GYN, also noted as he spoke on the floor of the Senate:

At a time when Vladimir Putin is killing Ukrainians, my Democrat colleagues want to kill more unborn American children for any reason up until the moment the baby takes its first breath. Indeed, this bill should be called the Abortion on Demand until Birth Act. This is the most egregious, horrific attack on the lives of unborn children and the health of moms in American history … I never ever imagined when I came to the Senate that I would be fighting harder on the Senate floor to save the lives of moms and babies than I did in the emergency room and the delivery room.

Ronna McDaniel, chairwoman of the Republican National Committee, also observed in a statement, “If there was any remaining doubt, tonight’s vote makes clear that Joe Biden and Democrats are absolute abortion extremists.”

“From endorsing taxpayer-funded abortion up to the point of birth to opposing even the most common-sense pro-life protections, Democrats’ abortion fanaticism is at odds with the vast majority of Americans,” McDaniel added. “Voters will hold them accountable in November.”

Students for Life of America celebrated the defeat of the legislation, tweeting, “Women won today! In a bipartisan vote, pro-abortion lawmakers failed to advance the “Women’s Health Protection Act,” an abortion measure more radical than Roe v. Wade that would’ve overridden a state’s ability to protect babies and their mothers.”

Troy Newman, president of the pro-life watchdog organization Operation Rescue, said the Senate’s vote against the measure “sent a strong message that America is weary of the human suffering that abortion has inflicted on our nation.”

“We are so grateful to every senator who voted against this horrific bill,” Newman added. “With their votes, they literally saved the lives of countless innocent children. We also are thankful for all the pro-life people who contacted their senators in opposition to H.R. 3755. You share in this important victory.”

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Susan Berry, PhD, is national education editor at The Star News Network. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Richard Blumenthal” by United States Senate. Background Photo “Embryo Week 9-10” by lunar caustic. CC BY 2.0.

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