Influential Republican Senator Lindsey Graham introduced a bill on Tuesday that would ban abortion across the United States after 15 weeks of pregnancy, prompting an immediate outcry in Joe Biden’s camp.
The right to abortion has been at the center of political debates since the Supreme Court’s decision last June, which made every state free to ban it on its soil.
US Senator Lindsey Graham, a close friend of Donald Trump, praised the merits of his text on Tuesday, assuring that it offered a “consensus” solution on the issue.
By banning abortion after 15 weeks, America “would be from a federal point of view at a fairly consistent level with the rest of the world”, defended the elected official from South Carolina during a press conference. He has repeatedly taken as an example the case of France, where the period for voluntary termination of pregnancy is 14 weeks.
“In general, it is rather seen as a good thing to be as reckless as the French,” laughed the senator.
However, the text provides for leaving in place all the abortion bans adopted by a dozen conservative states since the Supreme Court’s decision.
Much more moderate than many Republican proposals on the subject, the bill gives the conservatives the opportunity to soften their message to American voters, who are mainly in favor of the right to abortion, less than two months before the elections of mid-term.
He immediately made the Democratic camp jump, which is counting on this subject to mobilize its base for this ballot, traditionally perilous for the power in place.
The text “would deprive women of their rights in the 50 states” American, denounced the spokeswoman for the White House, Karine Jean-Pierre.
“Make no mistake: if the Republicans have the chance, they will make sure to pass laws even more draconian than this project,” added the Democratic speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi.