The abortion vote that could haunt Democrats in November

Take, for example, the case of Arizona Democratic senator Mark Kelly, who is up for re-election this year in what will likely be one of the most competitive races in the country. When I recently asked Kelly if the bill he voted for, the Women’s Health Protection Act (WHPA), would invalidate Arizona’s parental-consent law, the Arizona senator told me he didn’t know. “I think that’s something that you could, you know, reach out to the Congressional Research [Service] folks and figure out,” Kelly said. He did, however, express general opposition to parental-consent laws, saying he would not be the “arbiter of an age” at which a minor could choose to have an abortion without her parents’ involvement.

The office of GOP senator Steve Daines, the chairman of the Senate Pro-Life Caucus, tells National Review that it confirmed with the Congressional Research Service that Arizona’s parental-consent law would likely be struck down under the WHPA.

But you don’t need experts’ analysis to figure that out — you just need to read the bill: The version of the WHPA that House Democrats almost unanimously voted for in September 2021 — the same version that received a vote in the Senate on February 28 of this year — explicitly states that “access to abortion services has been obstructed” by “parental involvement laws (notification and consent).”