Will a GOP Senator Save Abortion Rights?

Collins vows new law to secure women’s health choices

Protecting women’s reproductive rights in this country may end up depending less on the courts than on the political skill of Sen. Susan Collins — a Republican moderate known more for civility than passion.

The Maine lawmaker denounced as “extreme, inhumane and unconstitutional” Texas’ six-week abortion ban that allows vigilantes to sue anyone who aids a woman. She said she is working with another Republican and two Democrats to write a bill to turn the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision guaranteeing abortion rights into federal law.

Collins rejected a House bill that sought to do the same, saying it reduced states’ rights and religious exemptions now included in Roe. At any rate, a bill sponsored by a GOP senator may have a better chance at avoiding a filibuster.

This commitment also would help Collins polish her pro-choice reputation. In 2018, she was a deciding vote for the controversial confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. She gave a long speech about how she was convinced he viewed abortion rights as settled law.

Yet, he has voted to support the Texas law, which has nearly shut down abortion services in the state since it went into effect Sept. 1.

The Supreme Court has agreed to a Nov. 1 hearing about the law, but allowed it to stay into place for now. The Department of Justice is suing, labeling the law a “scheme of vigilante justice” and an “open threat to the rule of law.” Under the law, anyone can sue to collect at least $10,000 against any friend, family member or associate who aided a woman seeking an abortion.

There is still a chance the court could rule against the law, since it voiced concerns about its legality when it voted 5–4 not to block it from going into effect. But it is not encouraging that the court continues to ignore the real-world consequences of a law that allows no exemptions for rape or incest and ignores the fact that many women don’t even know they are pregnant at six weeks.

“These women will suffer personal harm from delaying their medical care, and as their pregnancies progress, they may even be unable to obtain abortion care altogether,” Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in a dissent against keeping the law in place. “Every day the Court fails to grant relief is devastating, both for individual women and for our constitutional system as a whole.”

In addition to the hearing on the Texas law, the court will hold a Dec. 1 hearing on Mississippi’s 15-week abortion ban. That directly challenges the Roe standard that a fetus is viable no earlier than 24 weeks.

If Roe is ultimately struck down, nearly two dozen states have laws on the books that would immediately eliminate or severely restrict abortions, according to the Guttmacher Institute.

So, even if both the Texas and Mississippi laws were ruled unconstitutional, federal legislation would still be essential to secure women’s health rights. Collins, who engaged in a lot of bipartisan negotiation over many years, should have the knowledge and connections to make that happen.

She also has some standing with Democrats, having been one of seven GOP senators to vote to impeach Donald Trump in his second trial. She voted to certify the presidential election and to support President Biden’s COVID-19 rescue plan.

Just how all that registers with the Senate Republicans’ current policy of obstruction remains to be seen. But with rising momentum in grass-roots organizing for abortion rights, Collins could assume a leadership role in what could be a significant election issue.

What it would take is the same kind of the tenacity shown by Rep. Judy Chu, D-Calif., the lead sponsor of the House bill to make Roe a law. Chu introduced the bill every year since 2013 until she got it passed.

“Congress must protect the rights of women and pregnant people in every ZIP code,” she said, “putting an end to an attack on abortion once and for all.”

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