WASHINGTON – After the United States Senate failed May 11 to advance a “radical” abortion bill, the chairmen of two U.S. bishops’ committees urged Congress “to stop pushing abortion as the solution to the needs of women and young girls” and “embrace” public policy initiatives that protect “both mother and child.”
The Women’s Health Protection Act, or S. 4132, did not get the 60 votes needed to end debate on the bill and advance it to a vote on the substance of the measure. The vote to end debate was 51-49.
The bill, which passed in the U.S. House in September 2021 and failed in the Senate earlier this year, was “far more extreme than Roe v. Wade,” said Archbishop William E. Lori of Baltimore, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Pro-Life Activities, and Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York, chairman of the Committee for Religious Liberty.
In their statement, Archbishop Lori and Cardinal Dolan called the now-failed Senate legislation “an utterly unjust and extreme measure” and said they were “relieved that the Senate vote to advance this bill failed for the second time in less than three months.”
“As a nation built on the recognition that every human being is endowed by its Creator with the unalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,” Archbishop Lori and Cardinal Dolan said, “we implore Congress to stop pushing abortion as a solution to the needs of women and young girls, and instead embrace public policy that fully respects and facilitates these rights and the needs of both mother and child.”
Stay Connected With Us