Lee

Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) is making another go at attempting to prohibit pregnant women who live in the District of Columbia from seeking abortions after 20 weeks. Lee, a conservative with Tea Party backing, introduced yesterday his counterpart to a bill raised in the House last month by Rep. Trent Franks (R-Ariz.)

It’s something of a repeat from last year, when Lee and Franks introduced similar pieces of legislation. Franks’ bill was defeated in a vote of the full House. Lee, meanwhile, attempted to affix his bill to a cybersecurity bill, but it did not receive a vote.

Already the District’s advocates on Capitol Hill are mobilizing to parry Lee’s revived bill. “This is not Senator Lee’s first attack on D.C. women or attempt to seize authority over a local jurisdiction,” Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) said in a news release. “Senator Lee is trying to undemocratically usurp local authority outside his own state in violation of every founding principle of local control, and at the same time to introduce the idea that basic constitutional rights depend on where a citizen lives.”

The summary of Lee’s bill states its purpose is to “protect pain-capable unborn children in the District of Columbia.” Just as Franks’ version in the House does, Lee’s bill cites widely disputed evidence that fetuses can feel pain after just 20 weeks.

The pro-statehood group DC Vote also weighed in against Lee’s bill yesterday. “If Senator Lee is truly the limited government advocate he claims to be, his only course of action would be to withdraw [the bill],” said Kimberly Perry, the group’s executive director.