Rep trying to expand Texas abortion law nationwide

A congressman from Texas said he plans to introduce legislation in the House that would ban abortion at the federal level.

 

Rep. Jodey Arrington (R-Texas) said he is working on modeling the legislation after a Texas law that bans abortion at six weeks of pregnancy, significantly reducing abortion access in the state.

 

“I’m working on it actually, right now,” Arrington said Thursday at a press conference. “I’d like to have that [Texas’s law] the law of the land and I think that is the ideal for me.”

 

The Supreme Court struck down the constitutional right to an abortion last month, upholding a Mississippi state law that bans abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy.

 

People in more than a dozen states with “trigger laws” — abortion bans designed to take effect after the court overturned Roe v. Wade — are now facing limited or no access to abortions.

 

“I understand and respect and also support the decision that the Supreme Court made, which is until such time there is legislation that passes the legislative body at the federal level then we delegate it to the states,” Arrington said.

 

“It’s a steeper hill to climb in Washington, but that doesn’t mean we don’t have to start climbing it now,” he added.

 

Even if Republicans controlled Congress in November, they would be unlikely to achieve 60 votes in the Senate on any abortion ban, and it is almost guaranteed President Biden would not sign it into law.