Democratic Lawmakers Try To Protect Travel Out Of State For An Abortion

Topline

Senate Republicans blocked legislation Thursday that would have protected Americans who travel out of state to get an abortion—but the House will move forward with a similar bill on Friday—as congressional Democrats try to respond to the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade.

Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) (left) hold a press conference … [+] outside the U.S. Capitol building on June 15 in Washington, DC.

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Key Facts

Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) on Thursday stymied Senate Democrats’ attempt to pass via unanimous consent the Freedom to Travel for Health Care Act, which would have restricted states and officials from barring anyone from traveling to another state to receive reproductive health care, or punishing anyone who helps them or performs the abortion.

The House will vote Friday on a similar bill, the Ensuring Access to Abortion Act, which bars states from prohibiting people from getting or aiding an out-of-state abortion, assuming abortion is legal in the state they’re traveling to.

The legislation also has explicit protections for medication abortions, saying states can’t prohibit interstate commerce of drugs that have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration, as abortion pills have.

If states do enforce punishments for out-of-state abortions, the U.S. attorney general or the people who were punished for the out-of-state abortions can bring civil lawsuits and seek damages under the law.

What To Watch For

The Democratic majority in the House means the Ensuring Access to Abortion Act will probably succeed on Friday, though it’s still unlikely to become law, given that it would need 60 votes to clear the Senate—and the similar bill there has already failed.

Chief Critic

Senate Republicans heavily opposed the Freedom to Travel for Health Care Act, both due to their opposition to abortion and believing the bill’s protections for crossing state lines is unnecessary. “How are you going to keep somebody from traveling?” Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) told Politico, calling the bill “absurd.” “That’s silly. And they know it’s silly, but they’re just trying to fool the American people into thinking they’re doing something significant.”

What We Don’t Know

If or how states will try to restrict crossing state lines for abortion. While no states yet explicitly bar going out of state for an abortion, a Missouri lawmaker has introduced legislation to do so, and anti-abortion advocates have already started pushing to include out-of-state prohibitions in future anti-abortion bills. The Washington Post reports bills under consideration could be modeled after Texas’ Senate Bill 8, which banned abortion by letting any private citizen bring civil lawsuits against those who aided or abetted an abortion. Other Democratic states have passed laws or imposed executive orders with protections for people that travel to their states for abortion care or those who help them, and the conflict between the two opposing sets of state policies is likely to play out in court.

Key Background

Democrats’ proposals to protect interstate abortion travel comes as lawmakers on the left have struggled to respond to the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade and the wave of state-level abortion bans that ensued. While several Democratic-led committees held hearings this week on the ruling and its impacts and lawmakers intend to hold additional votes on legislation, abortion rights advocates are hamstrung by the Senate, which has already struck down bills twice that would enshrine abortion rights in federal law. President Joe Biden has called for the Senate to abolish the filibuster for abortion rights, which would mean a bill could pass with a simple majority instead of 60 votes. Moderate Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) continue to oppose getting rid of the filibuster, however, and the president has urged Americans to vote in the midterms to elect two more Democratic senators so that it can be abolished and legislation can pass.

Democratic Lawmakers Try To Protect Travel Out Of State For An Abortion—Here’s How