Senate Democrats blocked pro-life legislation Tuesday that would require colleges to provide resources and accommodations to pregnant students in a party-line vote of 47-45, falling short of a 60-vote majority.
The Pregnant Students’ Rights Act, introduced by Republican Florida Sen. Ashley Moody, is aimed at encouraging female students to carry a pregnancy to term without putting their academic career on hold. Democrats criticized the bill for not including access to abortion services as part of the resources required to be distributed to university students.
The bill’s text does not restrict abortion nor mention the practice.
Moody’s office said accommodations that colleges would be required to disclose to pregnant students if the legislation is signed into law include excused absences and modified class schedules. The bill would also direct colleges to provide information to women about how to file a Title IX complaint if they face discrimination on campus during a pregnancy.
“Navigating college can be challenging, and unfortunately women who become pregnant can feel pressure choosing between bringing life into this world or academic failure,” Moody said in a statement on Jan. 14 accompanying her introduction of the legislation. “No one should have to make this decision.”
The legislation passed the House on Thursday in a vote of 217-211. Texas Rep. Henry Cuellar, a moderate lawmaker representing a battleground Hispanic-majority district President Donald Trump won in 2024, was the lone Democrat to break with his party and support the measure.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Friday that Democrats’ opposition to Moody’s legislation illuminated their hypocrisy on the issue.
“The pro-abortion movement and the Democratic Party have long claimed to be for choice,” Thune said Tuesday. “Well what better way to ensure that women actually have a choice than by making sure that they are aware of the resources available to them.”
In July 2025, Republicans successfully stripped abortion providers, including Planned Parenthood, of federal Medicaid funding for one year in Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
Thune described it as “first pro-life law enacted in decades” in a speech on the Senate floor Tuesday.
Senate Democrats in January 2025 blocked the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act in a vote of 52-47, falling short of the filibuster’s 60-vote legislative threshold.
The legislation, sponsored by Republican Oklahoma Sen. James Lankford, would require medical professionals to provide the same degree of care to babies that survive a botched abortion as they would during routine childbirth. Democrats warned the GOP-authored bill would place abortionists in legal jeopardy and unanimously opposed it.
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