Yesterday, Senator Blumenthal (D-CT) introduced the so-called “Women’s Health Protection Act” (WHPA). This bill would strip states of their right to regulate or limit abortion.
The bill creates a statutory right for abortionists and their patients to commit and receive abortions without any of the following limitations:
- Requiring medical tests or procedures such as ultrasound prior to an abortion
- Providing women with information about abortion procedures
- Requiring any type of pre-abortion counseling
- Restrictions on what types of services can be given through telemedicine
- Requiring a doctor to commit abortions
- Prohibitions on abortion after the baby reaches a certain age
- Prohibitions on partial birth abortions where the baby is nearly fully delivered before the abortionist severs his or her spinal cord
The WHPA goes far beyond codifying Roe v. Wade. The bill would effectively nullify virtually EVERY state abortion restriction. If enacted, it will be the most radical expansion of baby-killing since the legalization of abortion.
Currently,
- 27 states have laws requiring abortionists to provide or offer women an ultrasound so they can see their babies prior to abortion.
- 18 states require women be given information before an abortion that may include the link between abortion and breast cancer, the ability of unborn babies to feel pain, and the long-term effects of abortion, including post-abortion trauma.
- 25 states require women to receive counseling and information about abortion during a separate appointment and usually at least 24 hours before the abortion procedure.
- 19 states prohibit telemedicine abortion in that they require a physician to administer the first drug in a chemical abortion in person.
- 38 states mandate abortions be performed by licensed physicians – not nurses or assistants – and 17 states require a physician to be involved during late-term abortions.
- 43 states prohibit abortion after the baby reaches a certain age.
- 21 states prohibit partial-birth abortions (as does the federal Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act).
Under the WHPA, abortionists could circumvent EVERY SINGLE ONE of these duly-enacted laws. Almost all of the above abortion restrictions have been challenged in state and federal court and UPHELD. But the WHPA would override the will of the people, the actions of state legislators, and the decisions of judges, including Supreme Court justices.
And if that were not enough, the bill authorizes the U.S. Attorney General to SUE any government official who implements or enforces restrictions on abortion. The WHPA also creates what is called a “private right of action” allowing abortionists and their clients to file lawsuits challenging state and local abortion laws.
This is a flagrant attempt by abortion extremists to protect the abortion industry from all regulation and limitation. Never before have we seen an outright prohibition on every governmental entity – legislative, judicial, and executive – from acting on a particular issue.
Life Legal is currently evaluating options to challenge the WHPA in the event that it is enacted.