WASHINGTON — When the Supreme Court issued its abortion ruling overturning Roe v. Wade last June, House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy said, “Our work is far from done.” He didn’t say what might come next.
A year later, McCarthy is the speaker, Republicans are in the majority, and the gaps are beginning to fill.
In a flurry of overlooked legislative action, Republican lawmakers are pushing for changes to abortion policies, seeking to build on the work of activists whose strategy has successfully taken their fight to the nation’s highest court.
In government funding legislation after government funding bill, Republicans are incorporating independent policy provisions, known as riders, to restrict women’s reproductive rights. Democrats say the proposals will never go into effect.
“This isn’t just an attack on women’s health,” said Connecticut Rep. Rosa DeLauro, the top Democrat on the House Budget Committee, on Friday. “I see it as an attempt to derail the entire federal government funding process by including these burdens in the approval process.”
Texas Republican Kay Granger, who chairs the committee, said during a hearing last week that the drivers involved “continue longstanding pro-life protections that are important to our side of the aisle.”
Using draft budgets in this way is nothing new, but it does point to a wider disagreement among Republicans about how to proceed next on abortion after the Supreme Court decision cleared the way state by state restrictions on abortion rights.
For years, Republicans in the House of Representatives voted individually on bills to limit abortion. Meanwhile, some in the party — particularly the nearly 20 Republicans running for re-election in swing districts — are hesitant if not outright opposed to accepting calls for abortion proposals. They say such bills will never see the light of day as long as Democrats control the Senate.
The new Republican push comes line by line in the massive bills that are crafted each year to fund government agencies and programs.
Nearly a dozen anti-abortion measures have been included in draft budgets so far. On the agricultural front, for example, Republicans want to reverse a recent move by the Food and Drug Administration that would allow the contraceptive pill mifepristone to be dispensed certified pharmaciesin contrast only in hospitals and clinics.
Anti-abortion proposals have found their way into the Defense Act, where Republican lawmakers aim to ban paid vacations and travel for service members and their family members who seek reproductive health services. Rep. Mike Rogers, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said he warned Secretary of Defense Llyod Austin about it.
“I told them that was going to be a poison pill when it came to enforcing their legislation here,” Rogers, R-Ala., said last week. “I told him you know you’re asking for trouble. And now they’re in trouble.”
There are also criticisms of the Financial Services Act: Republicans want to ban the use of local and state funds to implement a District of Columbia law prohibiting discrimination against workers in reproductive decisions.
“It seems like there’s nothing they can do without trying to restrict abortion rights,” said Washington state Rep. Suzan DelBene, chair of the Democratic campaign branch of the House of Representatives. “I don’t think that will fool the public and it will definitely be a critical issue in the next election.”
She and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee are working to reach out to vulnerable Republicans on this matter ahead of the 2024 election.
Republicans’ sweeping efforts to incorporate what critics often deride as “poison pills” into the approval process is fueling September’s confrontation with Senate and White House Democrats over the spending bills, potentially increasing the chances of one government shutdown with the beginning of the new fiscal year on October 1st.
DeLauro, who chaired the appropriations committee last Congress, said Republicans’ decision to include these measures was a betrayal of the parties’ agreement years ago not to include provisions in spending laws that would block passage.
She said Democrats on the committee, who worked late into the night on these bills last week, asked their Republican counterparts to reconsider abortion language.
Just last week, the Senate passed the military and farm bills with no abortion measures outside of committee.
Sen. Patty Murray, chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, told The Associated Press that she made it clear she would be a “firewall” against House Republican efforts to further restrict reproductive rights.
“I’ve fought back Republican efforts to limit access to reproductive health care and abortion in every deal or negotiation I’ve been a part of since I’ve been in the Senate — that’s not going to change anytime soon,” said Murray, D -Wash.
In a previous statement with the committee’s top Republican, Maine Senator Susan Collins, the two vowed to “continue to work bipartisanly to draft serious funding legislation that can go into effect.”
But the growing tension between GOP factions over abortion legislation remains apparent.
The Republican Studies Committee — the largest single group in the House GOP conference — recently issued a memo to members asking leaders to vote on a proposal that “would clarify that health insurance plans supporting voluntary abortions offer are not eligible for federal funding.”
This bill would effectively codify Hyde Amendment, limiting government funding for most abortions. For decades, Democrats allowed it to become part of state funding laws as a sort of compromise that allowed them to focus on securing other priorities.
It’s unclear whether Republican leaders in the House of Representatives will want to risk putting anti-abortion measures to a vote when the spending bill route might be a more comfortable option for some in the party.
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