An abortion bill stalled in the U.S. Senate that would strike down state parental notification and consent laws could be a problem for Democrats in the November election, including U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet.
The Women’s Health Protection Act (WHPA) was blocked by Republicans and their Democrat friend from West Virginia in late February, but most Democrats including Bennet voted in favor of busting the filibuster.
That’s what could come back to haunt Democrats, National Review reports.
When Virginians are demanding parental rights for what their child is being taught in the classroom, it’s not a stretch that Coloradans would want parental rights to be notified when their child is seeking an abortion.
Democrats have tried for years to pass this bill, and every version of the proposed legislation contained carveouts protecting parental consent and notifications passed by individual states.
But not the version voted on last month.
Shortly after Senate Republicans and West Virginia Democrat Joe Manchin voted to filibuster the WHPA last month, I asked Senator Blumenthal why Democrats had decided to drop the parental-consent carveouts and whether he agreed that the WHPA would strike down state parental-involvement laws. “I’d have to get back to you,” Blumenthal replied in response to each question. When I followed up with him later, he said the bill “would preclude medically unnecessary laws” but refused to specify whether parental-involvement laws fell into that category.
Other Senate Democrats similarly dodged the question. Colorado senator Michael Bennet wouldn’t say whether the WHPA would strike down Colorado’s parental-notification law. “We were just voting on a motion to proceed” to debate on the bill, Bennet said, so questions about specific provisions were “premature” though he would be “happy to answer them when they’re relevant.” But Bennet didn’t merely vote to start debate on the bill; he is one of 48 Democratic senators who cosponsored it, and now he is unwilling or unable to say what effect it would have on existing laws in his own state.
Interestingly, the legislation does state:
The terms “woman” and “women” are used in this bill to reflect the identity of the majority of people targeted and affected by restrictions on abortion services, and to address squarely the targeted restrictions on abortion, which are rooted in misogyny. However, access to abortion services is critical to the health of every person capable of becoming pregnant. This Act is intended to protect all people with the capacity for pregnancy—cisgender women, transgender men, non-binary individuals, those who identify with a different gender, and others—who are unjustly harmed by restrictions on abortion services.
Colorado’s Democrat-controlled legislature seemed very confident that voters were on their side when they passed the “Reproductive Health Equity Act” recently to guarantee abortion access here no matter what ruling is handed down by the Supreme Court on Roe v. Wade.
If only Colorado Democrats cared as much about guaranteed parental access to their own children for consultation before undergoing a medical procedure.
Three guesses as to what other medical procedures Democrats might next want to give children access to without their parents permission or notification.