On June 24, 2022, the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and handed abortion back to the states.
Now the health agenda AOC's working group gave Hakeem Jeffries puts a bill to erase that victory back in play.
And one undefined word in that bill hands any abortionist the final say, right up to birth.
AOC and Terri Sewell Delivered the House Democrats' Health Care Plan to Jeffries
On September 16, 2026, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries received a health care agenda from a working group led by Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Terri Sewell.
The document runs 84 pages.
It lays out what Democrats want to do with the gavel if voters give them the House in November.
According to LifeNews, the memo declares, "Undoing H.R. 1 is the floor, but not the ceiling," taking aim at President Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill.
The ceiling includes abortion on demand.
LifeNews reports the memo cites "broad consensus" on abortion, with H.R. 12, the so-called Women's Health Protection Act, at the center of the push.
Rep. Judy Chu of California introduced it on June 24, 2025, with more than 180 Democrats signed on from day one.
One Undefined Word in the Women's Health Protection Act Reaches the Ninth Month
The bill forbids states from restricting abortion before viability.
After viability – the point when a baby can survive outside the womb – it protects abortion whenever, "in the good-faith medical judgement of the treating health care provider, it is necessary to protect the life or health of the patient."
The word is health.
The bill never defines it.
The Supreme Court defined it wide open back in 1973.
In Doe v. Bolton, the justices ruled that a doctor's judgment on a woman's health covers "all factors – physical, emotional, psychological, familial, and the woman's age."
Read that way, stress counts, family circumstances count, and age counts.
One provider signs off, and no state law can stand in the way.
Then the bill hands Washington the club to enforce it.
The attorney general gets the power to sue any state that resists.
Abortion businesses get the right to drag state officials into court.
And states lose their Tenth and Eleventh Amendment immunity from those lawsuits.
The group now called SBA Pro-Life America warned that an earlier version would "nullify pro-life laws in states across the country."
That list included late-term abortion limits protecting unborn children who can feel pain, waiting periods and informed consent laws.
Curtis Means Was Born at 21 Weeks and Became the Most Premature Baby to Survive
Curtis Means was born at UAB Hospital in Birmingham, Alabama, at 21 weeks and one day, weighing less than a pound.
His twin sister, C'Asya, died the day after they were born.
Curtis fought through 275 days in intensive care and went home.
Guinness World Records named him the most premature baby ever to survive.
"Curtis defied all scientific odds," said UAB neonatologist Dr. Colm Travers.
Birmingham sits in Terri Sewell's congressional district.
The bill her working group lined up behind would protect abortion months past the point where Curtis was fighting for his life in UAB's neonatal intensive care unit.
Every Senate Republican Voted No When Democrats Tried to Codify Roe in 2022
House Democrats passed earlier versions of this bill in 2021 and 2022.
When Democrats tried to codify Roe in the Senate in May 2022, Chuck Schumer couldn't even scrape together a simple majority.
It failed 51-49, with all 50 Republicans and Democrat Joe Manchin voting no.
Manchin didn't run again in 2024, and his West Virginia seat went to Republican Jim Justice.
Dobbs Let States Protect Unborn Babies and H.R. 12 Would Take That Away
Dobbs sent the abortion question home to the people and their state legislatures, and pro-life states used that power to protect babies like Curtis.
Alabama protects nearly every unborn child under its Human Life Protection Act, in force since the day Dobbs came down.
H.R. 12 would erase it with one vote in Washington – in Terri Sewell's home state, where Curtis Means took his first breath.
President Trump's veto pen stops it through January 2029.
A Democratic House puts it on the launchpad for the day that pen is gone, and AOC's working group has put it in writing.
Curtis Means is what's on the other side of that one undefined word.
Sources:
- Steven Ertelt, "Democrats Plan Bill for Abortions Up to Birth Nationwide if They Win Congress," LifeNews, September 29, 2026.
- Peter Sullivan, "House Democratic Healthcare Options Sent to Hakeem Jeffries," Punchbowl News, September 17, 2026.
- Lauren Green, "Three Potential Healthcare Priorities if Democrats Retake the House," Washington Examiner, September 17, 2026.
- Rep. Judy Chu, "H.R. 12, Women's Health Protection Act of 2025," U.S. Government Publishing Office, June 24, 2025.
- U.S. Supreme Court, "Doe v. Bolton, 410 U.S. 179," Justia, January 22, 1973.
- Katie Yoder, "US Senate to Vote on Women's Health Protection Act: Here's What to Know," Catholic News Agency, May 2022.
- Alabama NewsCenter Staff, "UAB Hospital Delivers Record-Breaking Premature Baby," Alabama NewsCenter, November 15, 2021.
