House Democrats today voted to make abortion the law of the land with a couple of bills, neither of which are likely to go anywhere in the Senate.
The first vote was the so-called “Women’s Health Protection Act”: 219-210 with 2 not-voting.
One Democrat joined Republicans voting against it, which was Henry Cuellar from Texas.
The second vote was the so-called “Ensuring Access to Abortion Act”: 223-205 with 3 not-voting.
Three Republicans joined Democrats to pass it: Brian Fitzpatrick from Pennsylvania, Adam Kinzinger from Illinois, and Fred Upton from Michigan.
But there were a couple of Republicans who chose not to vote on either of the abortion bills, whether to recommit or on final passage: Liz Cheney and Anthony Gonzalez from Ohio.
After Liz Cheney’s tweet the other day claiming she is strongly pro-life, I would have thought she would have voted against both bills:
I have always been strongly pro-life. Today’s ruling by the Supreme Court returns power to the states and the people of the states to address the issue of abortion under state law.
— Rep. Liz Cheney (@RepLizCheney) June 24, 2022
But she didn’t. She choose to sit on the sidelines and not vote.
I can’t say for sure why she chose not to vote, but I have a strong suspicion that Cheney is trying hard not to turn away Democrat votes she needs to win in the August primary. Remember, she is actively pursuing Democratic voters to keep her seat by telling them how they can switch their party to Republican just so they can vote for her in the Republican Primary.
Cheney already received a huge backlash from Democrats over her pro-life tweet and my guess is that she chickened out because she doesn’t want to upset them anymore.
And this is exactly why she needs to lose in August. She’s so compromised at this point she looks more like a Democrat than a Republican.
As for Anthony Gonzalez, he voted to impeach Trump and thus he isn’t even running for reelection. So I doubt he even cares.