Another Franks — not Barney — tees off

Abortion After 20 Weeks

By ANDREW ROSENTHAL, NYT

On the list of treasured Republican pastimes, trying to outlaw abortion and imposing a right-wing agenda on the District of Columbia (which is heavily Democratic and lacks any representation in Congress) both rank high.

So it must have given Rep. Trent Franks of Arizona special pleasure to combine those hobbies by introducing a bill to ban abortion in D.C. after 20 weeks. But why stop there? Late last week, according to Think Progress, Mr. Franks said that the Kermit Gosnell trial “compelled him to amend his bill so it applies to women across the country.” On Wednesday he held a press conference, dominated by men, naturally, to promote his bold proposal.

Mr. Franks’ bill ignores the central principle of the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision, which is that women have a constitutional right to terminate a pregnancy before “viability.” For 40 years, that date has been set roughly at 24 weeks — not because that number sounded good to a random lawmaker, but because that’s when scientists say a fetus has a good chance of survival outside of the womb.

The 24-week rule, however, has been under heavy assault recently by anti-abortion forces, who have managed to get several states to pass laws moving the line to 20 weeks or earlier. That’s just one step in the direction of their not-so-secret ultimate aim: to ban abortions entirely.

(More here.)