WATCH: Sen. Graham urges federal abortion ban after 15 weeks | #shorts

Flanked by advocates from anti-abortion organizations, Sen. Lindsey Graham announced on Tuesday he was introducing a bill that would create a nationwide ban on abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy. He said it does have exceptions for rape, incest and the health of the mother. Graham said limiting abortion to the first 15 weeks was comparable to several other European nations. “If we adopted my bill…we would be in the mainstream of most everybody else in the rest of the world,” Graham said. But while the bill would force states that have expansive abortion rights to limit them, it would not make states that have already banned abortion to increase their limits to 15 weeks. The South Carolina Republican’s announcement reignited a fresh debate on the issue less than 60 days before the Nov. 8 midterm elections. The bill, which has little likelihood of becoming law in the Democratic-held Congress, was not embraced by Republican party leaders. “I think every Republican senator running this year in these contested races has an answer as to how they feel about the issue,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said. “So I leave it up to our candidates who are quite capable of handling this issue to determine for them what their response is.” Rebukes of Graham’s bill came swiftly from Democrats including Sen. Patty Murray of Washington. “To anyone who thought they were safe, here is the painful reality,” she said. “Republicans are coming for your rights.” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre issued a statement calling the bill “wildly out of step with what Americans believe.” This post was produced and edited by Rachel Liesendahl, Kenichi Serino, Julia Griffin, Yasmeen Alamiri and Matt Rasnic. Stream your PBS favorites with the PBS app: https://to.pbs.org/2Jb8twG Find more from PBS NewsHour at https://www.pbs.org/newshour Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://bit.ly/2HfsCD6 Follow us: TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@pbsnews Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/newshour Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/newshour Facebook: http://www.pbs.org/newshour Subscribe: PBS NewsHour podcasts: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/podcasts Newsletters: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/subscribe