On Sept. 13, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), introduced the Protecting Pain-Capable Unborn Children from Late-Term Abortions Act.
Graham and his team claim that the legislation would federally ban abortion after 15 weeks of gestation – supposedly when unborn children can feel pain, although this is contested.
This act leaves in place state abortion bans that are more restrictive and allows for abortions after 15 weeks only in situations involving rape, incest or risks to the physical health of the pregnant person.
Graham’s proposed bill is not only receiving backlash from Democrats, but also from many Republicans who declared that abortion laws should be left up to the states.
Graham himself once shared this sentiment, before reversing his position with this proposal. In this very bill, he cites the Supreme Court case Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization – the case that overturned Roe v. Wade: ‘‘[i]t is time to heed the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the people’s elected representatives.’’
This excerpt from Dobbs is meant to give the right to create abortion restrictions back to the states – and it is in direct disagreement with Graham's goal of creating a federal abortion law. Not only is this bill a serious violation of reproductive freedom, but it is also a hypocritical effort to satisfy the conservative need for control over people’s bodies.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell – one of many Republicans who prefer the issue of abortion be left up to the states – has failed to throw his full support behind Graham's bill.
Graham has also previously expressed support for abortion being handled at the state level. In May, he tweeted: “That, in my view, is the most constitutionally sound way of dealing with this issue and the way the United States handled the issue until 1973.”
Obviously, his views on this have changed.
