By AlaskaWatchman.com

Sen. Lisa Murkowski could be a pivotal vote on a sweeping abortion bill that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is expected to bring before lawmakers in the next week.

The House of Representatives already passed the so-called Women’s Health Protection Act in September. It is now before the Senate. According to a report from the Center for Reproductive Rights, a global pro-abortion activist organization, Schumer plans to hold a vote on the legislation by Feb. 28.

The push to pass the law comes as pro-abortion activists are worried that the U.S. Supreme Court may soon overturn major parts of Roe v. Wade. The high court is expected to deliver a decision in June or July on the fate of a Mississippi law that bans abortions past 15 weeks, except for physical medical emergencies or severe fetal abnormalities. Many expect the court’s ruling could overturn Roe, thereby opening the door for individual states to create robust pro-life protections for unborn babies.

To head off a potential blow to Roe, the pro-abortion legislation currently before the Senate would enshrine a federal statutory right to both perform and access an abortion for any “health” reason, while specifically barring states from enforcing laws that require ultrasounds, waiting periods, informed consent or other regulations aimed at limiting or reducing abortions.

The Women’s Health Protection Act would also protect widespread distribution of chemical abortion pills and prohibit any laws that ban abortion on the basis of an unborn baby’s disability status, sex or race. It would also bar states from banning certain types of abortions such as dismembership, which entail tearing pre-born apart before removing them from their mother’s womb.

While the legislation narrowly passed the house, its fate in the Senate is more dubious. It currently has 47 co-sponsors in the evenly divided Senate, but it will take at least 60 senators to shut down debate and bring the legislation to a vote. That means Democrats must peal off 10 Republicans in order to get the bill passed.

While several Republicans, such as Sen. Murkowski and Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) have repeatedly voted in favor of pro-abortion legislation, neither are listed as sponsors of the current bill. Murkowski, however, told the Associated Press on Feb. 22 that she has “concern” over how the Supreme Court will decide the Mississippi law and the fate of Roe.

She said the high court has sent signals recently “that I think are causing concern for those of us who have said that Roe v. Wade was rightly decided.”

Planned Parenthood, the largest abortion business in the nation, is actively pressuring Murkowski and other senators to pass the abortion law ahead of the midterm elections, when Democrats are expected to lose seats in both the House and Senate.

TAKING ACTION

— Click here to contact Sen. Dan Sullivan.

— Click here to contact Sen. Lisa Murkowski.

Click here to support Alaska Watchman reporting.

Murkowski seen as swing vote for bill that would ban state pro-life laws

Joel Davidson
Joel is Editor-in-Chief of the Alaska Watchman. Joel is an award winning journalist and has been reporting for over 24 years, He is a proud father of 8 children, and lives in Palmer, Alaska.


13 Comments

  • JC says:

    I have already contacted both of them. I hope she will do the right thing and vote against this heinous bill. May God have mercy on her soul if she continues to support abortion.

    • Neil DeWitt says:

      She has no soul! For well over four years she has voted democratic. I could see now and then but it’s constantly with her. She ran on a republican ticket. We all voted her into office on a write in vote. Now we’re paying for keeping her their!

  • Neil DeWitt says:

    This is just straight out MURDER people. And yes under Roe v. Wade you can do it without prosecution at this point! Just wait till a real president gets back into office, if that ever happens again.

  • Brandon says:

    Rhino. . .

  • kris spencer says:

    I don’t understand how M. can remain associated with the Republican party. She is clearly not in line with her party and hasn’t been for years and is drifting further and further away from party principals. Isn’t that voter fraud, too??? People vote for her thinking she is a Republican, but she really isn’t. Do not count on her taking a pro-life position.

  • Steve says:

    Save your breath. Murkowski is owned, and it’s not by her Alaskan constituents. Murkowski does not follow her publicized religious belief, so why would you expect her to honor anything, or anyone other than herself? She believes that a practitioner should be allow to dismember a child in the womb regardless whether, science now shows, the child in the womb can and does feel pain. Lisa has accepted the teachings and is now a full fled member of the dark side.

    • Theresa says:

      Hey, let’s not forget that Saint Paul was once “owned” too…don’t save your breath: pray for her and write to her!

  • Akdale says:

    If you voted for her as a good Republican…..you are the problem as well. Wake up Ak.

  • Proud Alaskan says:

    Vote Lisa out now!!
    If you don’t vote, then you can’t bitch about anything.
    Remember One vote in person with ID

  • Natural Alaskan says:

    Alaskans are sick and tired of Lisa’s “concern,anguish, undecided” and other words she likes to use. She showed us how to cheat in elections when a judge appointed by her daddy allowed the FNSB to publish unproven dirt on her opponent, Joe Miller. Then she sent a certain set of voters to the polls with her name written on bracelets, which our crooked judges allowed, if memory serves. She taught the Democrats how to win, and then she votes with them. She is laughing at Alaska for being stupid enough to not recognize that she is destroying our state.

    • Older than Alaska says:

      Natural Alaskan, worse yet, in the 2010 recount I know of whole Villages that had Lisa’s write in vote all written in the same hand!

  • Di says:

    Women’s Health Protection Act is dead in the water. The US Supreme court will be publishing their decision on Roe v Wade because that is dead too. What makes it dead and waiting for a decision from the US Supreme court is the date of the case and the amount of cases after plus laws enacted by states over a period of time. Don’t be afraid of making your comments known to the US Supreme Court and the congress and the Senate. Write a note and letters and get online to whoever is in your value system of politics. Choose those who fight for your direction in thinking and it doesn’t have to be our elected from this state. We already know the three, Young, Sullivan and Murkowski do nothing.

  • Theresa says:

    Lisa can’t commit because the U.S. bishops have already asked their flock to write to their reps to stop H.R. 3755. I got my email from the USCCB yesterday. If she publicly supported it now, the Archbishop could not align himself with the USCCB without firing at Murkowski. Sadly, she’s got her bases covered with family members working in the chancery of the Archdiocese of Anchorage-Juneau, so communication is swift between the gatekeepers of death and the strings of the USCCB’s purse.
    God, have mercy on us!
    Most Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us!