House Passes Bills to ‘Protect’ Interstate Travel For Abortions and ‘Codify’ Abortion Protections

 

The House of Representatives on Friday passed a bill to ‘protect’ interstate travel for abortions in a 223-205 vote.

The House also passed bill that would ‘codify’ abortion protections after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade.

Axios reported:

The House on Friday passed a bill to protect people who travel out-of-state to access abortion care in a 223-205 vote, following last month’s Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade.

Driving the news: House lawmakers also passed a bill that codifies abortion protections that used to be guaranteed by Roe into federal law. That law had already passed the House in 2021 but failed in the Senate.

The big picture: Without Roe, states have the authority to regulate abortion at any point during pregnancy. Several states have already moved to ban or heavily restrict access to the procedure.

• Blue states have enacted protections in anticipation that red states will enact laws prohibiting their residents to travel elsewhere to get an abortion.

Details: The Ensuring Access to Abortion Act, introduced by Rep. Lizzie Fletcher (D-Texas), looks to prohibit states from interfering with Americans’ interstate travel to access abortion care.

• The bill sets protections to health providers who perform an abortion on out-of-state patients, to the patient, and to anyone that helps someone travel for the procedure.

The Women’s Health Protection Act (passed in a 219-210 vote), authored by Rep. Judy Chu (D-Calif.), prohibits states from banning abortion before viability. It also bars them from requiring a patient to “make medically unnecessary in-person visits” before getting the procedure.

Senate Republicans on Thursday blocked a bill to protect interstate travel for abortion.

The Democrats need at least 10 Republican Senators to pass the House bill on abortion.

Manchin and Sinema have both stated they will not nuke the filibuster so the Democrats are pretty much SOL.