House passes abortion bill after letting childrens health bill die

House Passes An Abortion Ban After Letting Children's Health Program Expire

NEW YORK? House Republicans are expected to pass a bill on Tuesday that would ban abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy ? a move the Trump administration said will “help to facilitate a culture of life.”

House Republicans passed a bill on Tuesday that would ban abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy ? a move the Trump administration said will “help to facilitate a culture of life.” The move comes three days after Congress allowed a federal children’s health program to expire, potentially leaving millions of poor children without insurance coverage. 

The abortion bill, which the House has passed before, would shorten the time period in which a woman can legally seek an abortion, based on the medically unsupported claim that fetuses can feel pain at 20 weeks. Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, authored an op-ed on the anti-abortion website LifeNews.com on Monday touting the legislation. 

“All of us—Republicans, Democrats, and Independents—can agree that the government has a vested interest in protecting the rights of children,” Goodlatte wrote, “and that should include unborn children after 20 weeks.” 

Yet Republicans in Congress just missed a deadline to reauthorize the Children’s Health Insurance Program, which helped states provide insurance coverage to 9 million children in low-income families. The Senate had put forth a bipartisan, 5-year bill to renew the program, but didn’t schedule a vote in time, instead prioritizing legislation to repeal and replace Obamacare. The House never even proposed a bill to reauthorize CHIP, which expired at the end of September. 


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