Filed by some of the most hardline anti-abortionrepresentatives in Congress, one billHR 722stood out as particularly drastic.
HR 722 seeks to codify into law what is colloquially known asfetal personhood.
Sonia Suter, a professor at George Washington University Law School, agrees.
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What does the bill say?
Wait, what is fetal personhood?
Its an extreme anti-abortion concept that gives all the legal rights to an embryo as any other human being.
It also introduces a host of other legal issues.
Remember howAlabama shut down IVFprocedures temporarily last year because of acourt rulingthat said embryos are extrauterine children?
(After a national outcry, a bill to protect IVF in the state was subsequentlypassed.)
A fetal-personhood bill would similarly put these sorts of procedures in jeopardy.
What are the other bills introduced?
Will these bills get traction?
Experts say its highly unlikely, essentially because lawmakers know how unpopular they would be.
And so the implications would just be too broad.
Trump partly won because he managed to say, Dont worry about the abortion issue.
I just want to leave it to the states, he says.
And suddenly all these people are introducing very restrictive bills, which the electorate overwhelmingly would reject.
Speaking of Trump, how does he play into all this?
And I just dont believe that he has sort of an ideological commitment to the pro-life position.
How would these bills make it to a vote?
The committee could also choose not to act on it at all, effectively killing it.
Theyre driven by pure ideology, which is out of step with public opinion, says Shrum.
They were voted into Congress by an electorate that supported these views, she says.
I think theyre trying to say, Were fighting for the unborn life.
Were fighting to protect women by trying to prohibit chemical abortions.
As the fight for abortion rights continues, what should we keep an eye out for?
you could say, Well…its about anything that you mail to achieve abortions.
That will set off a firestorm of unbelievable proportions, he says.
I mean, a very high percentage of abortions in this country are medical abortions not done surgically.
Any advice on how to keep fighting for reproductive rights?
Suter says we must keep focused.
Support groups, vote, educate people, talk to everybody about it, she says.
I think grassroots efforts are important.
