The Political Disagreement Over a Health Exception for Later Abortions
In recent years, Democrats in Congress have introduced a bill that would bar states from prohibiting abortion after a fetus is viable outside the womb in cases where the patient’s life or health is at risk. Republicans claim that the bill would allow abortion on demand “up to the moment of birth.”
Democrats counter that’s not what they support.
The disagreement centers on what each side interprets the “health” exception to mean, Mary Ziegler, a professor of law at the University of California, Davis and the author of six books on the abortion debate and the law, told us. “Republicans view those health exceptions as sort of like a blanket permission to have an abortion whenever you want.” Democrats say “it’s an exception for life or health.”
While there could be some Democrats who don’t support post-viability restrictions, Ziegler said, “that’s not the consensus opinion.”
Those details are missing from many instances in which this claim has been made.
Recently, on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham said that Democrats “introduced legislation that allowed abortion on demand with taxpayer-funded — you paying for it, the taxpayer, up to the moment of birth. That was their position in Washington. That’s the law they want to pass. And nobody in your business will talk about it.”
Later on the same April 23 show, host Dana Bash asked Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar if that was her position. “No, it is not,” Klobuchar said. “I think Sen. Graham knows where the
