Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., during each of the past five full sessions of Congress dating to 2013, has proposed federal legislation to ban abortions — until this year.
Over the past decade he has sought legislation to ban abortions at 20 weeks except for in 2022, when he scaled it back to 15 weeks, just two months before that year's midterm elections, reports NBC News.
The senator has never waited until this point in a congressional session, since 2013, to file his abortion ban legislation, and in December he commented that he had not "even thought about it."
He added, though, that the Senate was still negotiating on Ukraine aid and immigration and that when it comes to the ban proposal, he said "I eventually will, next year."
His office told NBC News last week it does not have any updates on Graham's plans to introduce an abortion ban this year, and the office of Rep. Christopher Smith, R-N.J., who has sought the bill in the House, did not respond to the network's request for comment.
The lack of an abortion bill call from Graham this year could signify that Republicans are now freer to restrict access to abortion after the 2022 Supreme Court's ruling overturning Roe v. Wade.
Sen. Mike Braun, R-Ind., who backed Graham's call for a 20-week ban in 2021, said Monday that there is not much point in bringing the matter up in the current congressional session, as the "key victory was getting it from the Supreme Court and putting it back to the states."
Further, Braun said that legislation would not pass in the Democrat-controlled Senate.
"I don't think we'll get 60 senators, so I think we should take what we accomplished from the courts," Braun commented.
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, another proponent of a federal ban, said that the Supreme Court's ruling on Roe pushed abortion legislation back to the states, and criticized "Democrat consultants that get paid a whole lot of money to scaremonger the voters."
Meanwhile several prominent Senate candidates are easing away from past statements on abortion rights and saying they would not support national bans.
Nevada Republican Senate candidate Sam Brown, citing his wife's experience with having an abortion before they were married, said last week he would not support a ban, saying that the matter is "not just a policy issue."
"We're talking about people's lives," he said. "I would love to see the conversation take that into account a lot more."
High-profile Senate candidates are also distancing themselves from an Alabama Supreme Court decision ruling that frozen embryos created through in vitro fertilization are "babies."
In a memo, the National Republican Senatorial Committee said that "when responding to the Alabama Supreme Court ruling, it is imperative that our candidates align with the public's overwhelming support for IVF and fertility treatments."
The issue, however, has been a hot-button item in the GOP presidential primaries. Former Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has dropped out, defended his state's six-week ban, while former President Donald Trump has said he is weighing support for a 16-week federal ban.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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