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Protests with banners after the Supreme Court ruling at the end of June: »Which Human Right is Next?«
Photo: JOHN RUDOFF / AFP
The US House of Representatives has voted in favor of federal abortion rights in the US – but the bill is likely to fail in the Senate.
MPs voted 219 to 210 in favor of the project on Friday.
At the end of June, the country's highest court overturned the constitutional right to abortion.
This allows the state legislatures or Congress to decide by law whether and how abortion is permitted or forbidden.
There is currently no federal law – the Democrats want to change that.
But they lack the necessary majority in the Senate.
By the end of June, a 1973 Supreme Court ruling secured this right to abortion, and abortions were legal nationwide at least until the fetus was viable.
That decision was overturned by the conservative majority of the court in a historic decision.
The result is a patchwork of regulations.
Abortion is now largely banned in many states.
The Democrats had already tried unsuccessfully in May to enshrine the right to abortion in a federal law.
At that time, a draft of the judgment had become public, which already showed that the judges wanted to overturn the right to abortion.
The Democrats hope to be able to mobilize the issue before the congressional elections in the fall.
Polls assume a gain in votes for the Republicans.
Some of them are campaigning for legislation to ban abortion nationwide.
aeh/dpa