Moran, Marshall vote against Senate abortion bill they view as immoral, horrific

TOPEKA — Republican U.S. Sens. Jerry Moran and Roger Marshall voted against an effort led by Democrats to establish in federal law a nationwide right to abortion.

The senators from Kansas objected to the proposed Women’s Health Protection Act as a misguided expansion of reproductive health care rights at a time when the U.S. Supreme Court appeared to be on the verge of overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade decision of 1973. The justices at that time said the U.S. Constitution protected a woman’s liberty to have an abortion without excessive government restriction, but overturning that precedent would leave questions of abortion to the states.

Kansas voters have an opportunity in the August primary to decide a proposed amendment to the Kansas Constitution that would nullify a Kansas Supreme Court decision in 2019 that found a woman’s right to an abortion was protected by the state constitution.

On Wednesday, Moran said he couldn’t support a Senate measure that stood as “the most sweeping expansion of abortion access in our nation’s history” and a “desperate effort to create a federal protection for abortion.”

Marshall, a physician who specialized in pregnancy and female reproductive health, said the measure before the Senate was the “most egregious, horrific attack on the lives of unborn children and the health of moms in American history.”

The Senate’s vote of 49-51 — well below the 60 required to overcome a filibuster — was the chamber’s first on abortion since publication by Politico of the draft majority opinion striking down Roe v. Wade. The opinion involves the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization case on constitutionality of a 2018 law banning most abortions in the initial 15 weeks of pregnancy in Mississippi.

Moran said Democrats wanted to adopt a federal law granting women to terminate a pregnancy “at any point for any reason.” Marshall asserted the legislation would allow abortions “the moment prior” to performing a C-section birth.

“While the overturning of Roe v. Wade simply returns this emotional issue to the states, to the elected voice of the people, this bill would invalidate any and all state laws that protect the unborn child and the health and well-being of the mom,” Marshall said.

Moran said Democrats sought to eliminate conscience protections for health care providers opposed to abortion and would threaten state laws that included waiting periods for an abortion and requirements minors obtain consent from a parent before an abortion.

“Not only is this legislation immoral, it is far outside the mainstream of American opinion and would have placed the United States alongside China and North Korea as outliers with the world’s most permissive abortion laws,” Moran said.