House Dems Plan Discharge Petition on Abortion

House Democrats, despite being in the minority, are planning to force House Republicans to bring forward a vote to codify Roe v. Wade, Axios reported Thursday.

The Women’s Health Protection Act would make abortion access a federal mandate nationwide, usurping constitutional authority of states on making laws to restrict abortion.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., plans the discharge petition tactic to force vulnerable House Republicans to vote on the abortion issue before the 2024 election cycle, three sources told Axios.

“Every person — no matter their circumstances or how or where they became pregnant — deserves dignity, safety, and care in seeking an abortion,” Rep. Judy Chu, D-Calif., wrote in a statement in March renewing her push that began in 2013 and passed the House twice, but has failed to become law.

“But last summer, in an instant, an extremist Supreme Court ripped away the bodily autonomy of half the American population. The Women’s Health Protection Act fights back by creating a federal right to abortion care, free from state-level abortion bans that chip away at reproductive freedom, and by moving us toward a nation of true equality.”

A discharge petition to bring the bill forward in the House under Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., would require the signatures of all 213 Democrats and five Republicans.

The WHPA did not receive a Republican vote when it passed the Democrat-run House last year.

And Rep. Diana DeGette, D-Colo., admitted it would be “hard” to get any Republican support for the abortion access mandate law.

None of the House Democrats’ discharge petitions received a single Republican vote thus far in this GOP-led conference.

Democrats have long used abortion access as a political tool to win elections against Republicans, particularly conservatives who want to further restrictions against abortion up to six weeks since conception.