September 24, 2021

Women's Health Protection Act Threatens to Codify Abortion Rights

Pro-abortion legislators in Washington are pushing to pass the deceptively named Women’s Health Protection Act. The bill does not protect women or their access to healthcare, but it does codify into law a right to abortion up until the moment of birth. Further than that, it could remove conscience protections for doctors who refuse to participate in abortions.

“The Women’s Health Protection Act is designed to remove all legal protections for unborn children on both the federal and state levels,” said Carol Tobias, president of National Right to Life (NRLC). “The Women’s Health Protection Act is, in effect, the Abortion-Without-Limits-Until Birth Act.”

Tobias continued, “The only ones to benefit from this legislation would be abortionists and abortion providers such as Planned Parenthood. This legislation endangers women and their unborn children, would expand taxpayer funding of abortion, and would no longer require that a woman be given information about the development of her unborn child.”

If the “Women’s Health Protection Act” is passed into law, a variety of pro-life protections would be nullified. These include informed consent laws, waiting period laws, laws protecting the consciences of pro-life doctors, and laws preventing non-doctors from carrying out abortions.

According to a report from The Heritage Foundation, the law would also block states from enforcing laws that:
  • restrict discriminatory abortions based on race, sex, or genetic abnormality
  • ban post-viability abortions
  • introduce safety requirements for chemical abortions
  • restrict taxpayer funding of abortion
“According to pro-abortion groups, if this law is enacted, abortion-on-demand would be allowed in all 50 states, even if Roe v. Wade is weakened or overturned. Elective abortion would become the procedure that must always be facilitated – never delayed, never impeded to the slightest degree,” said Jennifer Popik, J.D., director of Federal Legislation for National Right to Life.

Even pro-abortion Senator Susan Collins (R-Maine), who supports codifying Roe v. Wade into law, said that she believes the bill goes too far. She argues that the pro-abortion bill would weaken the Religious Freedom Restoration Act by taking protections away from medical professionals who don't want to participate in abortions.

The Women's Health Protection Act does not just codify Roe v. Wade. It undoes many state and federal pro-life laws deemed constitutional even under current pro-abortion Supreme Court precedent.