For the first time in years, Sen. Graham hasn't introduced a national abortion ban
Sen. Lindsey Graham has introduced a national abortion ban bill every Congress since 2013. He hasn't yet this time as Republicans scramble on abortion messaging.
WASHINGTON — Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina has spent much of the last decade as one of the leading proponents of a federal abortion ban.
In each of the last five full sessions of Congress, dating to 2013, he proposed legislation to ban abortion at 20 weeks. After the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade, he triumphantly announced new legislation to ban abortion at 15 weeks, irking some of his colleagues by doing so less than two months before the 2022 midterm elections.
But as Democrats overperformed that November and voters in states across the country have without exception come down on the side of protecting abortion access since then, Graham has done something curious: He hasn’t proposed the legislation yet.
Since 2013, he has never waited this long into a congressional session to file a national abortion ban bill. Asked about the decision, he brushed it off.
“I haven’t even thought about it,” Graham said in a brief interview in December.
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