Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska joined with Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ), Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA), and Susan Collins (R-ME) in reintroducing abortion legislation that would reinstate abortion as it was regulated under Roe v. Wade, which was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court because it was unconstitutional.
The bill is called the Reproductive Freedom for All Act and is the same bill the four introduced last August, but which gained no traction in the Senate before the midterm elections, as many senators did not want to run with a vote on abortion on their scorecard.
“This would undo the damage of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade after almost 50 years, and would enshrine in federal law the fundamental right to reproductive freedom,” the press release from Murkowski’s office said, exactly the words she used in August, when first introducing the bill.
“Following the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs, we’ve seen significant erosion of women’s reproductive rights in numerous states across the country—changes that have taken away rights and regressed access to women’s healthcare by decades. Now, it’s up to Congress to help restore and protect women’s reproductive rights. I’m proud to reintroduce bipartisan legislation with my colleagues to continue the access to contraception provided in Griswold and to make permanent the protections provided through Roe and Casey,” Murkowski said. “Unless we enshrine reproductive healthcare autonomy into law, we risk a future where generations of women will grow up with fewer rights than their mothers.”
Jim Minnery, executive director of Alaska Family Council, differs from the senator on the subject of the rights of unborn Americans: “Murkowski’s relentless pursuit of and fascination with ending the lives of as many weak and defenseless preborn babies as possible is nothing short of barbaric. Every other human right she professes to care about is meaningless if the right to life, clearly spelled out in our Federal and State constitutions, is dismissed as a ‘choice.’ Her priorities are sad to watch unfold and damaging to our cultural psyche.”
Murkowski, who was recently reelected to a six-year term, reflects the views of many Americans in the current era, according to an ongoing survey by Gallup, which shows that the support for some level of abortion right has remained fairly steady since the 1990s:
