The Republican-led House pressed ahead on Wednesday with a pair of proposals that would impose new limits on abortion, despite warning signs that the issue had galvanized the opposition and dashed their hopes of a thundering victory in last year’s midterms.

The bills, which are not expected to advance in the Democratic-controlled Senate, are among the first moves made by Republicans’ new, narrow House majority and intended to underscore their legislative priorities ahead of the 2024 elections.

One Republican abortion measure under consideration would condemn attacks on pregnancy crisis-centers, while the second would compel medical providers to care for an infant who survives an attempted abortion – an occurrence that is exceedingly rare.

“I am proud that Republicans are following through on the promises that we made to the American people,” the majority leader, Steve Scalise, the second highest ranking House Republican and a staunch anti-abortion advocate, told reporters this week. “All life is sacred and must be protected.”

Anti-abortion groups have long pushed so-called “born alive” legislation similar to the version under consideration in the House, which could carry a prison sentence of up to five years for medical workers.

Critics, including medical professionals, say such measures are based on distortions and misinformation about what is often an extremely painful and often unwanted decision to end a pregnancy. Abortions after the point of viability, which is defined as about 23 weeks, are extremely uncommon, according to federal and state data. In the rare instances they do happen, they often involve serious fetal abnormalities or risks to the life of the mother.

Moreover, opponents say newborns are already protected by a bipartisan law passed in 2002, which established full legal rights for infants born at any stage of development.

Public support for abortion rights has climbed since the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe. In November, voters punished Republicans for building the conservative supreme court that last year overturned Roe v Wade, eliminating the constitutional right to an abortion. Despite rampant inflation and Joe Biden’s low approval ratings, Democrats defied expectations in November, keeping control of the Senate and limiting Republican gains in the House, where their razor-thin majority is already proving to be a challenge.

Voters also rejected several efforts to limit abortion access. In Montana, a traditionally conservative western state, voters rejected an initiative related to infants born after attempted abortions that is similar to the one House Republicans were poised to pass on Wednesday.

Yet abortion remains a top concern among conservative Republicans, and especially anti-abortion activists alarmed by the backlash to the supreme court decision. Both measures are expected to enjoy the full support of the Republican conference, while Democrats are urging their caucus to vote against them. Yet the early focus on abortion has given some Republicans in swing districts cause for concern.

“We learned nothing from the midterms if this is how we’re going to operate in the first week. Millions of women across the board were angry over overturning Roe v Wade,” congresswoman Nancy Mace, a Republican from South Carolina, told reporters on Capitol Hill on Tuesday.

Noting that the bills had little chance of becoming law, she called the move “tone-deaf” and said Republicans were merely “paying lip-service to life”.

“If you want to make a difference and reduce the number of abortions with a Democratic-controlled Senate, the No 1 issue we should be working on is access to birth control,” she said.

Republicans’ also advanced a non-binding resolution condemning violence against “pro-life facilities, groups and churches” which drew Democratic opposition because of its failure to address the threats targeting women’s health care clinics and abortion providers.

“By ignoring these acts of violence, Republicans are sending a very dangerous message that will only embolden the extremists behind them,” said Congresswoman Diana DeGette, a Democrat of Colorado and co-chair of the House Pro-Choice Caucus.

Speaking on the House floor ahead of the vote, DeGette urged Republicans instead to adopt a counter-resolution that would condemn acts of political violence in any form.

Republicans, arguing in favor of the resolution, said anti-abortion groups had become targets of political violence since the supreme court’s June decision, and denounced the department of justice’s response to these attacks as inadequate.

“This resolution is very simple and its language is clear,” said Congressman Jim Jordan, a Republican of Ohio, who has been critical of what he says is evidence of political bias within federal law enforcement against antiabortion groups. “It also calls upon the Biden administration to take action now to bring the perpetrators to justice. Who could be opposed to that?”

In a statement, the Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer, affirmed that the bills were “doomed” in the Senate, where he said Democrats would act as a “firewall against this extreme anti-choice Maga Republican agenda”.

“Just months after a historically disappointing midterm election, the Maga Republican-controlled House is putting on full display their truly extreme views on women’s health with legislation that does not have the support of the American people,” Schumer said ahead of the House vote. “Once again, Republicans are proving how dangerously out of touch they are with mainstream America.”

Reproductive rights activists appeared to be on the verge of another political victory this week in Virginia, where abortion was at the center of a closely watched state senate race. Democrats were projected to have flipped the seat, a result that would probably prevent the state legislature from enacting a 15-week abortion ban backed by the state’s conservative governor, Glenn Youngkin.