WASHINGTON | Senate Democrats threatened Wednesday to torpedo bipartisan legislation combating human sex trafficking in a dispute over a Republican-backed abortion provision they said they had failed to notice for nearly two months.
Lawmakers in both parties bemoaned the bill’s evident fate, but neither Republicans nor Democrats seemed willing to give ground.
“This is really not an honorable time or a laudable time in the history of the United States Senate,” said Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.
As drafted, the measure would crack down on what lawmakers in both parties described a seamy underworld of drugs and human sex trafficking akin to modern-day slavery. Fines paid by those convicted of the crimes would go into a fund to help victims.
But the specifics of the legislation itself were far overshadowed by a who-knew-what-when dispute over a reliably contentious issue.
Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said Democrats had, in fact, known of the abortion-related provision that Republicans backed, citing discussion among aides of both parties.
Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid of Nevada said in remarks on the Senate floor that “a number of people feel that it was by sleight-of-hand” that the provision was included in the measure, while “others say staff should have seen it was in the bill.” A day earlier, others in his party had said flatly that no one on their side of the aisle had been informed.
At issue was a provision to bar the use of fines paid by convicted traffickers for abortions, except in cases of rape, incest or when the life of the pregnant woman is in jeopardy.
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