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Now that the GOP has succeeded in its decades-long push to overturn Roe v. Wade, conservatives are turning to the next front in their war on reproductive rights: a national abortion ban. Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, a top ally of Donald Trump, is introducing a bill that would federally prohibit the procedure after 15 weeks of pregnancy. It doesnt go as far as the heartbeat bill his colleague, Iowa Senator Joni Ernst, has proposed. But Grahams measure, dubbed the Protecting Pain-Capable Unborn Children from Late-Term Abortions Act, would nonetheless constitute an extreme attack on reproductive freedom and healthcare and incidentally, on the states rights Republicans say are near and dear to their heart.

If you'll recall, states' rights had seemed top of mind for Republicans back in June, when Samuel Alito and the Supreme Courts conservative supermajority issued its Dobbs decision and ended federal abortion protections. The power to decide this profound moral question has officially returned to the states, where it will be debated and settled in the way it should be in our democratic society by the people, Republican Representative Ken Buck of Colorado said in a news release at the time. Graham himself echoed that point in a CNN interview just last month, arguing that states should decide the issue of marriage and states should decide the issue of abortion.

But, as The Washington Post pointed out last week, that hasnt stopped Republicans like Buck and Graham from expressing support for a national abortion ban a sweeping invasion of privacy that would seem to trample over state sovereignty. As Pramila Jayapal, chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, wrote Tuesday, Overturning Roe was never about giving power back to states. It was about controlling our bodies and our personal autonomy. We cannot let this happen.

The timing of Grahams legislation is somewhat curious, coming two months before an election that has, in part, become a referendum on Dobbs: All across the country, Republican candidates have scrambled to soften or hide their extreme anti-abortion stances while Democrats, who were just months ago bracing for a November shellacking, continue to gain momentum in the midterms. But putting forth a nationwide ban which, as Sean Hannity approvingly noted Monday evening, mirrors the Mississippi law at the center of the Dobbs case appears to confirm Democrats dire warnings that the GOP seeks to outlaw abortion not just in GOP-led states but throughout every state in the union.

Its unclear how much traction Grahams legislation will have within his party at least with the midterms looming. But even if the party doesnt mobilize around him now, Grahams latest proposal the most extreme antiabortion legislation hes ever introduced serves as a preview of what a GOP majority is likely pursue on Capitol Hill. Indeed, a number of Republicans including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell have expressed support for draconian federal restrictions. Would they be able to pull it off? Thats hard to say. But the prospect of such a move underscores the danger the GOP continues to pose to reproductive rights in this country.

A national abortion ban may be wildly unpopular, but thats also sort of the point. If Republicans were to truly confer such policies to the will of the people, as Buck put it, Roe probably wouldnt have been overturned in the first place. Polls have consistently shown that an overwhelming majority of Americans support reproductive freedom. Even in the GOP-led state of Kansas, voters soundly rejected a ballot initiative that would have stripped abortion protections from the state constitution. Voters may be poised to do so again in states like Michigan, where Republicans tried and failed to block a ballot measure to let the citizens decide. States rights," the GOP is learning, might be a nice rallying cry when youre trying to justify the Supreme Court breaking with five decades of precedent. But its far less appealing when states dont do exactly as you want them to.

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So Much for States' Rights: Republicans Are Eyeing a National Abortion Ban - Vanity Fair