LIFENEWS — House Democrats voted 216-208 today to pass a bill that attempts to make Washington D.C. the 51st state. The bill, which Republicans say violates the Constitution, would also force Americans to fund abortions.
The Democrats’ legislation would in theory create a 51st state with one representative and two senators. However, the measure now heads to the Senate, where Republicans are expected to filibuster it and Democrats will not find 60 votes to end the filibuster and the legislation will die — unless Democrats try to ramrod the bill through the chamber by ditching the filibuster vote this bill.
Under the bill, the White House, the U.S. Capitol and the National Mall would remain as a federal district bu the rest of the heavily Democrat District of Columbia would become a state. The new state would be known as Washington, Douglass Commonwealth, named after the famous abolitionist.
Republicans say the proposed state explicitly violates the Constitution and would go against what the nation’s founders wanted.
