House Republicans are contemplating what kind of national abortion ban legislation to pursue if they win control of the chamber in the November midterms.
A 15-week or longer ban is among the options, The Hill reported.
In 2015 and 2017, House GOP members passed the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, which would ban abortion after 20 weeks gestation.
Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., who's sponsoring a current bill, told CNN that he was considering changing the limit to a 15-week ban.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., told CNN that he would support a 15-week abortion ban.
The Supreme Court, in a 6-3 ruling on June 24, upheld a Republican-backed Mississippi law that bans abortion after 15 weeks. The justices held that the Roe v. Wade decision that allowed abortions performed before a fetus would be viable outside the womb — between 24 and 28 weeks of pregnancy — was wrongly decided because the U.S. Constitution makes no specific mention of abortion rights.
On the day the high court announced its decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, McCarthy did not mention any specific restrictions that would be pursued if Republicans reclaim the majority.
"We will continue to look wherever we can go to save as many lives as possible,” McCarthy said during a news conference.
Any abortion ban passed in a GOP-controlled House in the next Congress likely would not become law, election analysts say, because it's unlikely that Senate Republicans would win a filibuster-proof majority.
Even if Senate Republicans can pass a bill, President Joe Biden likely would veto it.
Passing an abortion ban in the House, though, would send a message about where Republicans stand on abortion restrictions.
House Minority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La., in May said that his conference would take up the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act on "day one" in a GOP majority, The Hill said.
The bill, sponsored by Rep. Ann Wagner, R-Mo., would require care to be given to an infant that survives an abortion procedure.
Democrats insist a 2002 law already guarantees infants’ legal rights.
Some House Republicans are advocating for a total or near-total abortion ban beyond the 20- or 15-week proposals.
The Life at Conception Act, led by Rep. Alex Mooney , R-W.Va., would recognize rights from the "moment of fertilization."
The Heartbeat Protection Act, from Rep. Mike Kelly, R-Pa., would ban abortion after cardiac activity can be detected in a fetus, usually around six weeks' gestation.
Some Republicans, though, are leery of rushing toward a federal-restriction law.
"We've tipped the power of the last few years too much to Washington, D.C., which our founders warned us about that," Rep. Kevin Hern, R-Okla., said, The Hill reported.
"And the real engagement should be at the state level, where citizens can take a day off from work and go petition — truly exercise their First Amendment rights to go petition their government at their state capitals and their legislators that live in their hometown."
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