Sen. Marco Rubio is being asked to introduce legislation that would ban abortion after 20 weeks, an adviser to the Florida Republican confirmed to POLITICO.
“The pro-life groups have asked him to introduce the bill in the Senate,” the adviser said. “He had not made a final decision before leaving on a family vacation earlier this week. I expect an announcement when he gets back to DC next week.”
The request, first reported in the Weekly Standard, comes as the national spotlight shines on the abortion debate. The House of Representatives successfully passed such a measure last month, though that kind of restriction on abortion is likely to fail in the Senate. That 20-week ban is also part of the controversial Texas abortion bill, which sparked a 13-hour filibuster last week in Austin led by state Sen. Wendy Davis.
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The Weekly Standard reported that Rubio, a possible 2016 contender, has agreed to serve as lead sponsor of such a bill; Rubio’s office would not confirm that Wednesday. An advocate of the measure also wouldn’t verify Rubio’s commitment, but did express enthusiasm about a possible sponsorship move from the senator.
“The most I can tell you is we think he’d be a wonderful chief sponsor of the bill,” Douglas Johnson, the legislative director of the National Right to Life Committee, told POLITICO.
That organization has played a central role in crafting legislative language tied to 20-week abortion bans.
Johnson said that Rubio is a champion of the anti-abortion cause, having led the charge on other measures restricting the procedure, and said he hopes to see the Senate move on this issue “in the not-too-distant future.”
“We do expect that the bill is going to be introduced shortly in the Senate,” he said, adding, “I think you’ll see, probably, a consensus emerge where all the pro-life senators are on one bill shortly. But it’s not my place to announce that.”
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