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"  Yesterday, as expected, the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, a bill to prohibit women from having abortions after 20 weeks was passed by the House of Representatives in a 228-196 vote. It has virtually no shot at being passed while President Obama \u2014 a staunch supporter of women&amp;#039;s rights \u2014 is in office: The White House released a statement on Monday that they considered it an &amp;quot;assault on a woman&amp;#039;s right to choose.&amp;quot; And the Democratic Senate is unlikely to let it get to his desk. However, the fact that it&amp;#039;s even gotten this far is a bleak omen for pro-choice Americans \u2014 its passage is still symbolic. Here are some reasons that the doomed national abortion ban still matters. It claims to be a response to the horrific Gosnell clinic \u2014 but Kermit Gosnell&amp;#039;s crimes don&amp;#039;t represent the women&amp;#039;s reproductive health community. Said House speaker John Boehner (R-OH): &amp;quot;Listen, after this Kermit Gosnell trial and some of the horrific acts that were going on, the vast majority of the American people believe in the substance of this bill, and so do I.&amp;quot; To make the Gosnell trial the face of all abortion in America is completely unfair \u2014 it&amp;#039;s basically like saying Cameron Crowe should never be allowed to make another movie because he made Elizabethtown. Most Planned Parenthood-sanctioned clinics are clean and patients leave with minimal or no complications.  Furthermore, using that tragedy to further their agenda belittles the lives that were lost at Gosnell and his employees&amp;#039; hands. Many of the women who went to Gosnell did so because they had nowhere else to go, thanks to the increasing restrictions on abortion access \u2014 something these Republicans don&amp;#039;t seem to consider at all. The Judiciary Committee responsible for the legislation features not a single woman, and 88 percent of the house is comprised of white males. Republicans continue to be reinforced that they don&amp;#039;t need to understand basic biology before they attempt to restrict a woman&amp;#039;s right to choose.  The overlap between anti-choice Republican politicians and their high rate of blunders about How Babies Are Made is no coincidence; just last week, Rep. Trent Franks said during a court of appeals hearing on the ban that &amp;quot;the incidence of rape resulting in pregnancy (is) very low.&amp;quot; (In fact, studies have shown that conception from rape is twice as likely as conception from consensual sex.) And we all remember our friend Rep. Todd &amp;quot;Legitimate Rape&amp;quot; Akin. The exemption in the case of sexual assault was tacked on as a last-minute addendum. It&amp;#039;s clear that the high rate of sexual assaults isn&amp;#039;t at the forefront of their minds. This year&amp;#039;s Senate elections will vacate two pro-choice seats. Even though the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act is unlikely to make it to the President&amp;#039;s desk this go-round, it&amp;#039;s entirely possible that won&amp;#039;t be the case if more anti-choice Senators are voted in.  Follow Anna on Twitter. Image via Getty "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.cosmopolitan.com/politics/news/a13435/20-week-abortion-ban-wont-pass-matters/?click=cos_new>