House Passes Bill That Would Protect Travel Out Of State For An Abortion

Topline

House lawmakers passed legislation Friday that would protect abortion rights and Americans who travel out of state to get an abortion—one day after a similar bill failed in the Senate—as congressional Democrats try to respond to the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade despite the bills being unlikely to become law.

Abortion-rights demonstrators protest on May 10, 2022 in Washington, DC.

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Key Facts

The House passed the Ensuring Access to Abortion Act in a 223-205 vote, 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.

The House also passed the Women’s Health Protection Act in a 219-210 vote, which it had already approved an earlier version of in September 2021 and broadly protects the federal right to an abortion, as well as blocks many restrictions on the procedure that states have imposed.

Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) on Thursday stymied Senate Democrats’ attempt to pass via unanimous consent the similar 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.

What To Watch For

The two abortion bills passed Friday are unlikely to succeed in the Senate, given they would need 60 votes to pass. In addition to the GOP thwarting the Freedom to Travel for Health Care Act on Thursday, the Senate has already struck down the Women’s Health Protection Act twice before, and it’s unlikely the bill would face better odds of passing this time around.

Chief Critic

Republicans have heavily opposed the travel-based abortion bills in the House and Senate, both due to their opposition to abortion and believing the bills’ 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 Senate 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 and its 60-vote treshold for bills to pass. President Joe Biden has called for the Senate to abolish the filibuster for abortion rights, which would mean a bill could instead pass with a simple majority. 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.

House Passes Bill That Would Protect Travel Out Of State For An Abortion—Here’s How