Hearing offers a preview of the explosive debates in Congress and statehouses if the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade
The House Judiciary Committee contemplated the overturning of Roe v. Wade at a hearing Wednesday, where doctors testified about the potential for prosecution of miscarriages, one House member told an unusually personal story of her pregnancies and Republicans called for the end of “abortion on demand.”
The hearing, in response to a leaked draft ruling that indicated the Supreme Court would overturn the 1973 decision that first established the right to an abortion, offered a preview of the explosive debates in Congress and statehouses across the country if the justices ultimately rule that way.
Democrats, including Rep.
Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., argued that overturning the Roe decision would put the country back in a world where rich families could travel for abortions but the poor could not.
“We’ve got an effort to outlaw abortion in all 50 states, and to do it by congressional law, if possible, and if the Senate and the House become Republican, that will happen,” Cohen said.
Rep.
Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, and other Republicans on the panel repeatedly argued abortion has ended more than 60 million lives since the 1973 decision.
“You can’t pursue happiness if you first don’t have liberty, and you never have real liberty, you never have true freedom, if government won’t protect your most fundamental right — your right to live,” Jordan said.
The hearing comes after a leaked draft majority opinion in the challenge to Mississippi’s 15-week abortion ban, which the Supreme Court is set to rule on by the end of the term at the end of June. The draft, authored by Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. in February, would overturn Roe and essentially leave abortion regulation up to the states.
The draft also injected tough questions about one of the most intractable subjects in American politics into the midterm elections and congressional debate. Both chambers of Congress are closely divided, and Republicans have faced calls to do away with the Senate filibuster to pass such a ban under a Republican president if they take control of Congress.
Senate Minority Leader
Mitch McConnell told USA Today earlier this month that a national ban is “possible,” but he acknowledged it would have trouble passing a closely divided Senate.