On Wednesday, Senate Democrats filed a bill to abolish a 50-year-old provision that would increase abortion access internationally with US foreign funding.
The Helms Amendment, passed in 1973, was first repealed by the Abortion is Universal Healthcare Everywhere Act, which was introduced by Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ).
It’s Evil
The 1961 International Aid Act was amended by Congress to prohibit federal money for abortions used as a form of family planning, including in cases of rape, incest, or preserving the life of the mother.
Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health was famously overturned by the Supreme Court last month. Booker claimed this decision prevented Americans from accessing “important medical services” that go outside U.S. borders.
The impact of this unfortunate judgment, according to Booker, “will be felt throughout the world, delaying many nations which have long utilized Roe v. Wade as the foundation to increase abortion rights legislation in their own countries.”
“We need to act right away to lessen this decision’s global effects.”
In the UK, We are currently experiencing a Sexual Health & Abortion Rights Crisis.
Two women are facing prison sentences for having an abortion.
The UK Goverment quietly removing abortion and sexual health rights from an international pact on gender equality.#AbortionRights
— Amy 🌙 (@AmieeIngham) July 25, 2022
According to Booker, the legislation, which has the support of 21 other senators, will guarantee women have access to “safe” abortions abroad, thanks to federal funding.
Helms’ replacement in the Senate is doubtful, given the majority of Republicans applauded the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe.
Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV), a self-professed pro-life Democrat, will probably vote with the opposition since he opposes overturning the Hyde Amendment. This identical amendment typically prohibits using federal funding to pay for abortions.
Manchin stated to National Review in the autumn of last year that a reconciling plan proposed by House Democrats, which will establish a new program similar to Medicaid only without the Hyde Amendment, would be “completely dead.”
Manchin declared, “Yeah, we’re keeping the Hyde Rule. Hyde will be on; that is a given. It is necessary. If that’s gone, that’s already dead.”
Executive Overreach
In the wake of the Supreme Court decision, President Biden subsequently signed an executive order guaranteeing women’s access to reproductive healthcare.
He did this under the justification that the repeal of Roe v. Wade abolished a woman’s fundamental right to choose.
As a promising first step for pro-choice lawmakers to legislate abortion through Congress, Biden issued the executive order.
The statement continues, “President Biden stated clearly the best way to safeguard a woman’s right can choose is for lawmakers to reinstate the Roe protections as a federal statute.”
“Until then, he has pledged to do all he can to maintain access to safe abortion and to protect reproductive freedom.”
If abortion clinics we set up en mass thoughout the continent of Africa, there’d be an international Leftist outcry.
But place then in working class areas here in the West, and the Left can’t get enough of them.
Equality?
Don’t make me laugh!
— Alice Smith (@TheAliceSmith) July 22, 2022
Senate Republicans introduced legislation to prevent presidents from exercising executive power after Biden pondered announcing a health emergency to safeguard access to abortion.
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) presented the Preventing Federal Emergencies for Abortion Act, which would forbid the administration and the Department of Health and Human Services from sponsoring, promoting, or increasing access to abortion.
