House passes first GOP abortion bill days into new session

The House on Wednesday passed a bill that would require that all infants born after attempted abortions get medical care, the first abortion-related legislation from the House GOP majority after the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade over the summer.

The measure, titled the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, passed in a 220-210-1 vote. Rep. Henry Cuellar (Texas) was the only Democrat to vote for the measure. Rep. Vicente Gonzalez (D-Texas) voted "present."

The bill, which House Republicans vowed to bring up even before they clinched the majority, would mandate that an infant born alive after an attempted abortion receives the same degree of care that any other child born prematurely would receive. The measure also requires that the infant is taken to a hospital. And it threatens providers who don't comply with a fine or up to five years in prison

NARAL Pro-Choice America on Tuesday condemned this bill as "one that would allow politicians to interfere in personal family decisions."

“These bills make it plain: House Republicans are patently rejecting the will of the overwhelming majority of Americans who voted to support legal abortion in November," said Mini Timmaraju, the organization's president.

House passage of the bill comes days before the 50th anniversary of the Supreme Court ruling in Roe v. Wade, which made access to abortion a constitutional right. The justices struck down that decision in June 2022.

The move from the bench reverberated across the country, with conservatives hailing the court and liberals sounding the alarm about the future of abortion access in the U.S.

That fallout lingered until the November midterm elections, with abortion proving to be a top priority for voters. Polls ranked it as the second most important issue, behind inflation.