Republicans abruptly drop abortion bill

Thursday is the 42nd anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion in the United States. To mark the occasion, thousand of pro-life demonstrators will participate in the annual March for Life in Washington, D.C., while the U.S. House of Representatives planned to bring the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act to the floor for a vote. But those plans were scuttled Wednesday night.

Instead, the House will vote on a bill that prohibits federal funding of abortions, a prohibition that is already largely in effect.

House GOP leaders decided to call off the vote on a bill that would ban abortions after the 20th week of pregnancy in response to concerns raised by several female Republican lawmakers, most notably Reps. Renee Ellmers of North Carolina and Jackie Walorski of Indiana. The lawmakers’ objections centered on an exception in the bill that allowed victims of rape or incest to obtain a late-term abortion only after reporting the rape or incest to law enforcement.

Although Ellmers initially indicated she would not support the bill because of the reporting exceptions and how that might damage the Republican Party’s image in the eyes of women and millennials, she said on Facebook earlier Wednesday evening that she would vote for the bill after all. “I have and will continue to be a strong defender of the prolife community,” she wrote.

The vote’s cancellation brought a heated response from conservative, pro-life leaders, including Russell Moore, president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention. “Moral cowardice at the expense of the vulnerable unborn is both wrong and pathetic,” he tweeted.