Lindsey Graham invokes 14th Amendment while defending his 15-week abortion bill

South Carolina Republican Senator Lindsey Graham is forging ahead with his bill to ban abortion nationwide after 15 weeks, declaring confidently that ‘the people are with us’ during a Sunday television interview.

It comes despite a growing number of his fellow GOP Senators distancing themselves from the legislation after being forced to confront it by the press and -more importantly – by midterm voters who want to know where their representatives and candidates stand on the lightening rod issue.

Just as Graham was defending his bill on Fox News Sunday, Republican Senator Mike Rounds of South Dakota shot it down with a blunt ‘no.’

Rounds told CNN’s State of the Union, ‘No, I think right now, we should allow the states to explore the different possibilities about the appropriate way.’ 

The bill is a curveball in Republicans’ carefully laid election strategy to tacitly support the pro-life movement without taking an overt stance that would turn off independents and moderate Democrats in November.

Graham dismissed that argument on Sunday, stating: ‘I’m pro-life, even in an election year, and to those whose yet suggest that being pro life is losing politics – I reject that.’

He insisted that his stance was the popular one and even suggested that it’s backed by the US Constitution under the 14th Amendment, which guaranteed citizenship to formerly enslaved people while granting equal protections to black Americans and other non-whites.

‘The people are with us. The Constitution is with us. The 14th Amendment, for it to mean anything, means equal protection under the law,’ Graham said. 

Abortion rights activist holds a placard saying, “Roe Roe Roe your vote,” at the Monroe County Courthouse during a protest vigil a few hours before Indiana’s near total abortion ban goes into effect on September 15

‘I’m not going to allow a baby in Maryland and California to be dismembered at 38 weeks, a horrible death, without trying to help.’  

Rounds said such a bill has no chance of passing the Democrat-controlled House and Senate while re-stating that it’s a matter that should be left up to the states.

‘I think a better approach probably will be to allow the states to work through this and to find the appropriate language on a state-by-state basis and to find that common ground,’ the South Dakota Republican told CNN.

‘After that, maybe Congress steps in again, but at this point, I think the states are in a better shape to explore and to find the right direction on a state-by-state basis.’

Graham himself acknowledged that the bill is certainly doomed in today’s Congress but defended his action in introducing it anyway – less than two months before the midterms.

GOP Senator Mike Rounds of South Dakota said he’s not going to support Graham’s bill and said abortion is an issue best left up to the states

‘It will not pass tomorrow. But here’s the question: should it pass? If you come to Washington only introducing laws that can pass tomorrow, you’re not much good for the country,’ the South Carolina senator said.

‘Should we be a nation that allows abortion on demand like China up to the moment of birth? Hell no. We should be a nation that sets a national minimum standard of 15 weeks like the civilized world – like the French, the British and the Germans.’

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell suggested that he would not support the bill in a leadership press conference near-immediately after Graham introduced it.

When asked about McConnell’s private reaction when Graham told him about the bill, the senator deflected. 

‘Senator McConnell is a good man. He’s a pro-life candidate. He voted for my bill in 2020 to ban abortion on demand at 20 weeks because the child can feel pain,’ Graham said. 

Graham himself had declared that the issue of abortion should be left up to the states in June, around the time when the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and ruled those rights were not protected under the Constitution.