Illustration: Shoshana Gordon/Axios
Congressional Republicans plan to bring up the first antiabortion bill of the session in both chambers this week.
Why it matters: The largely symbolic measure would require health care providers to give care to infants born after an attempted abortion.
- It's timed to coincide with Wednesday's anniversary of the original Roe v. Wade decision and the March for Life planned for this weekend.
What's inside: The Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act would levy fines and prison sentences of up to five years to providers who fail "to exercise the proper degree of care in the case of a child who survives an abortion or attempted abortion."
- Medical groups have slammed the bill as not being based in medical evidence and taking away decisions from patients and providers.
- Health providers are already required under law to provide medical services to newborns at any gestational age.
State of play: The Senate is due to hold a cloture vote on the bill Wednesday afternoon, and the House is planning a floor vote later this week.
- The bill almost certainly won't advance in the Senate, but gives Republicans and Democrats a forum to speak on abortion.
- Senate Democrats plan to slam the legislation at a press conference Wednesday, calling it "a new government mandate overriding the best judgment of grieving families."
Flashback: This bill, the first abortion legislation put up for action in the 118th Congress, was the first antiabortion bill passed by the House after Roe v. Wade was overturned.
- It passed the House largely on party lines in January 2023, with just one Democrat, Henry Cuellar, voting for it.
- The bill never got traction in the Democratic-controlled Senate in the 118th.
