Democrats Block Ban on Sex Selective Abortions

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The House last week rejected a Republican bill that would impose fines and prison terms on doctors who perform abortions for the sole purpose of controlling the gender of the child, a practice known as sex-selective abortion.

The Prenatal Nondiscrimination Act was defeated in a 246-168 vote. While that’s a clear majority of the House, Republicans called up the bill under a suspension of House rules, which requires a two-thirds majority vote to pass. In this case, it would have required more support from Democrats.

Republicans have occasionally put controversial bills on the suspension calendar to highlight that Democrats oppose certain policies. House Speaker John Boehner indicated that the issue of stopping sex-selective abortion is important enough that they would try again.