September 15, 2022

Abortion Bill

U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham proposed new national restrictions on abortion on Tuesday… Graham announced legislation that would ban the procedure after 15 weeks of pregnancy nationwide… The current bill allows exceptions in cases involving rape, incest or risks to the mother's life and health.” Reuters

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From the Right

The right is supportive of banning abortions after 15 weeks, but divided over Graham’s bill.

From the Left

The left opposes the bill, arguing that it would prevent or delay medically necessary abortions.

The left opposes the bill, arguing that it would prevent or delay medically necessary abortions.

A libertarian's take

“Graham cites the federal government's power to regulate interstate commerce, ‘as interpreted by the Supreme Court.’ Since the Court has stretched that power to accommodate nearly anything Congress wants to do, that argument looks more promising. But even the super-elastic Commerce Clause invented by the Court's precedents may not be malleable enough to cover a nationwide ban on abortion after 14 weeks of gestation…

“Unfortunately for them, Democrats are in no position to argue that abortion legislation exceeds the federal government's enumerated powers. They not only rely on an expansive understanding of the Commerce Clause to justify much of their agenda; they have explicitly cited the Commerce Clause as a license for Congress to override state decisions regarding abortion…

“The late Justice Antonin Scalia complained that Roe ‘destroyed the compromises of the past, rendered compromise impossible for the future, and required the entire issue to be resolved uniformly, at the national level.’ The compromise that Scalia envisioned—letting states go their own way on abortion—is today threatened by maximalists on both sides of the issue.”
Jacob Sullum, Reason

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