From the massacre in Las Vegas, to the expiration of the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), to our inadequate response to Hurricane Maria, there's a lot going on in America that Congress should be responding to, but they found time today to advance an abortion bill.
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.
Democrats in the Senate will certainly filibuster this if Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell brings it up for a vote so, in addition to being an affront to the civil rights and bodily autonomy of women, I'd say that makes this an extraordinary waste of time.
Federal courts have also ruled in recent years that 20-week abortion bans passed by various states are unconstitutional. The Supreme Court has allowed these lower court rulings to stand.