Backlash Brewing Over House Republicans' Scuttling of Abortion Bill
The fallout from the House Republican leadership’s decision to cancel a vote on a controversial abortion bill on Thursday continues, with conservative activists warning that Republicans who moved to scuttle the bill may face primary challenges in 2016.
“I believe in political retribution, otherwise you might as well close up shop,” Susan B. Anthony List President Marjorie Dannenfelser told The Hill. The House had scheduled a vote on a bill to ban most abortions after the 20th week of pregnancy on January 22, the date of the annual March for Life in Washington to mark the anniversary of the Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade decision. But the vote on the Pain Capable and Unborn Child Protection Act was scuttled at the last minute due to opposition, led by Republican Representatives Renee Ellmers of North Carolina and Jackie Walorski of Indiana, over an exception for instances of rape that applies only...