Legistlation banning sex-selective abortions fails in US

The US House of Representatives on Thursday fell short in an effort to ban abortions based on the sex of the baby. The legislation would have made it a federal crime to perform or force a woman to undergo a sex-based abortion.

The bill had little chance of becoming law. The Democratic-controlled Senate would likely have ignored it, and the House brought it up under a procedure requiring a two-thirds majority for passage. The vote was 246-168 – 30 votes short of that majority. Twenty Democrats voted for it, while seven Republicans opposed it.

It was a rare social issue to reach the House floor in a year when the economy has dominated the political conversation, and Republicans, besieged by Democratic claims that they are waging a war on women, struck back by arguing that the vote was a women's rights issue.

“It is violence against women,” said Rep. Chris Smith, a Republican, of abortions of female children. “This is the real war on women.”