For the first time in years, Sen. Graham hasn't introduced a national abortion ban

WASHINGTON — Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina has spent much of the last decade as one of the leading proponents of a federal abortion ban.

In each of the last five full sessions of Congress, dating to 2013, he proposed legislation to ban abortion at 20 weeks. After the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade, he triumphantly announced new legislation to ban abortion at 15 weeks, irking some of his colleagues by doing so less than two months before the 2022 midterm elections.

But as Democrats overperformed that November and voters in states across the country have without exception come down on the side of protecting abortion access since then, Graham has done something curious: He hasn’t proposed the legislation yet.

Since 2013, he has never waited this long into a congressional session to file a national abortion ban bill. Asked about the decision, he brushed it off.

“I haven’t even thought about it,” Graham said in a brief interview in December.

Arguing that the Senate needs to get through negotiations over immigration and Ukraine aid first, Graham added: “I eventually will, next year.”

Months later, the Senate is still mired in those negotiations. And there has been no public announcement from Graham about abortion legislation, with his office telling NBC News last week it had no updates. The office of Rep. Christopher Smith, R-N.J., who regularly championed the bill in the House, didn’t respond. Neither did representatives for Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, one of the more prominent anti-abortion-rights groups that have repeatedly backed the bill.

It’s a stark departure for one of the anti-abortion-rights movement’s most powerful allies. And while Graham has sought to publicly downplay the