WASHINGTON, D.C. (LifeSiteNews) – A Democrat U.S. senator affirmed over the weekend that the Democrat Party does not recognize any limits to abortion on demand, a position soundly rejected by the American people.

National Review reported that Democrat Sen. Ben Cardin of Maryland was on Fox News Sunday with Shannon Bream, who asked him about former Vice President and Republican 2024 presidential candidate Mike Pence’s recent declaration that Democrats “actually support taxpayer funding of abortion all the way up to the moment of birth.”

Noting Cardin’s past support for the so-called Women’s Health Protection Act, which would codify a “right” to abortion throughout pregnancy, Bream asked, “Where do you draw the line?” and “What about the states where it’s actually legal up until the due date? Is that something Democrats support?”

“We support the right of women to make their own decisions,” Cardin said. “This is a personal decision made by women with the advice of their doctors and their family, and we don’t think we should try to tell women when they can make those decisions.”

“Is there a cut-off for you before that point?” the host replied.

“No, to me, it’s a reproductive — it’s a health-care decision,” the senator answered. “It’s up to women to make that decision.”

The WHPA, which has the support of President Joe Biden, establishes a federal statutory right to perform and obtain abortions, including after fetal viability (under the broad cover of “health”), and specifically forbids states from subjecting abortion to ultrasound requirements (even though these are standard to discern fetal age), mandatory waiting periods, informed-consent requirements, and other health and safety regulations, such as admitting privileges.

The WHPA also protects so-called “webcam” abortions (i.e., dispensing abortion pills without an in-person doctor’s visit), forbids banning abortions on the basis of a baby’s race, sex, or disability, and forbids banning particular techniques such as dilation and evacuation (D&E) procedures, better known as “dismemberment” abortions because they entail literally ripping unborn babies apart in the womb, then removing them from the uterus limb by limb.

Democrats have repeatedly voted to pass the measure in recent years, ultimately failing to clear the Senate’s 60-vote filibuster threshold when they had both chambers of Congress. Congressional Democrats have also repeatedly opposed the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, which would give teeth to legal requirements that doctors provide basic medical care for infants who survive attempted abortions.

A body of polling data shows that, while the general public is ambivalent about full abolition, clear majorities of Americans want abortion to be more heavily restricted than it currently is in most states.

A recent Tarrance Group survey commissioned by Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America found that 77% of Americans approve of limiting elective abortions to the first 15 weeks of pregnancy (with exceptions for rape, incest, and medical emergencies), 59% support a federal law imposing such a ban, and 64% oppose federal legislation imposing unlimited abortion on demand upon all 50 states.

Only 14% of respondents told pollsters that abortion should be legal until the third trimester, and only 14% said it should be legal through all nine months.

Fourteen states currently ban all or most abortions, while abortion allies pursue a variety of tactics to preserve abortion “access,” such as easing distribution of abortion pills, legal protection and financial support of interstate abortion travel, attempting to enshrine “rights” to the practice in state constitutions, constructing new abortion facilities near borders shared by pro-life and pro-abortion states, and making liberal states sanctuaries for those who want to evade or violate the laws of more pro-life neighbors. 

President Biden has called on Congress to codify a “right” to abortion in federal law, which would not only restore but expand the Roe status quo by making it illegal for states to pass virtually any pro-life laws.