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THE US HOUSE of Representatives has adopted two bills aimed at protecting access to abortion after the Supreme Court ruled that individual states can ban or restrict the procedure.
The legislation passed by the Democratic-controlled House is unlikely, however, to advance in the Senate where 10 Republican votes would be needed to bring the measures to the floor.
“Just three weeks ago, the Supreme Court took a wrecking ball to fundamental rights by overturning Roe v. Wade,” Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said, referring to the landmark case that enshrined legal access to abortion.
“That is why today, our pro-choice, pro-women Democratic majority stands resolute,” Pelosi said. “We will take further action to defend women’s reproductive freedom.”
The first bill, the ‘Women’s Health Protection Act’, adopted only with Democratic support, would legalise abortion throughout the United States.
The House passed a similar bill last year but it failed in the Senate.
The other bill adopted today would provide legal protection to women who leave one state to undergo an abortion in another.
Several conservative states have already banned abortion since the Supreme Court ruling, and about half of the 50 US states are expected to impose near or total bans in weeks or months to come.
US President Joe Biden denounced last month’s abortion ruling by the conservative-dominated Supreme Court and has urged Americans to turn out in large numbers to vote in November’s midterm elections.
The party in power tends to perform poorly in the midterms, however, and Democrats risk losing their majority in the House and their slim hold on the Senate.
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What a country. They were trying yo slander a 10 year old rape victum.
@Patrick Murphy: Yes what a joke of a country where a bunch of old dinosaurs decide what a majority of people want and which is a right to decide for themselves. Can visualise the good old USA coming apart, no real democracy there.
@Joe Johnson: unfortunately that applies here as well, we did first have the ability to stop any decision by a government if a majority of the people were against but that was removed out of our constitution
Why are 10 republicans needed for the law to pass in the Senate when democrats already have control of the Senate albeit a slim one?
@wormtubes: They sadly need 10 republicans because of a thing called the Filibuster. ‘A filibuster is a political procedure in which one or more members of a legislative body prolong debate on proposed legislation so as to delay or entirely prevent decision. It is sometimes referred to as “talking a bill to death” or “talking out a bill’
@wormtubes: it requires 3/5 or 60 votes to end a debate in the Senate. That will be impossible for any contentious decisions. Seems the actual vote can be a simple majority but in some cases effecting constitution changes a two third majority is required.
@wormtubes: it has to be a 60 majority, much le impeachment. It’s DOA
Dumb publicity stunt.
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