Joe Manchin has supported Democrats’ efforts to secure Roe v. Wade into federal law was essentially nixed as his party prepares to hold a vote on abortion legislation Wednesday afternoon.
“We’re going to vote on a bill that I’m not going to vote for today,” Manchin told reporters on Capitol Hill on Wednesday.
“But I would support a codification of Roe v. Wade if it were today – I was hoping for it,” said the West Virginia Democrat. “But I found out in the caucus yesterday that it wasn’t going to be, and you’ve probably heard about it by now.”
President Joe Biden’s new press secretary, Karine Jean Pierre, said on Wednesday that abortion rights were “seriously at risk” after a draft Supreme Court opinion leaked last week showing an impending overturn of the landmark abortion rights ruling.
“It is imperative that Congress act to adopt legislative safeguards for women’s access to health services and productive choices,” she added, noting that there is “strong support from the American people” for keeping the law.
In a show vote, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer will seek to file a lawsuit to stop Republicans from violating the Women’s Health Protection Act introduced by Connecticut Senator Richard Blumenthal.
Schumer knows he doesn’t have the votes to make the landmark abortion case federal law, but says he wants to take anti-abortion lawmakers on the record.
Moderate Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin told reporters in the Capitol on Wednesday (pictured) that he would not vote to file a lawsuit to end a filibuster on a law the Roe v. Wade would codify
The trial comes after Democrats tried to get the same bill passed in February, but the measure now has greater urgency as a Supreme Court leak shows a draft opinion overturning the Roe v. Wade’s 1973 law that made abortion constitutionally protected.
As Democrats try to invoke the culture of the Women’s Health Protection Act and stop a GOP filibuster, three senators will be able to stop those efforts and prevent the bill from getting a full vote .
West Virginia moderate Manchin will not support a Cloture vote and earlier this year took action against his party over the same abortion law.
Democrats were hoping for a Plan B, in which Republican Senators Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine would vote with them to offset Manchin’s defection. But it’s unlikely either or both will take up the issue from when they last voted against it in February.
The House of Representatives has already passed its version of the Women’s Health Protection Act, the Roe v. Wade would codify into law, but the Senate was unable to do so with the trio of moderates opposing passage of abortion rights into federal law.
Manchin and Arizona Democratic Senator Kyrsten Sinema has blocked her party from getting rid of the filibuster so the narrow majority would be able to pass any legislation it wants without requiring 60 votes to get it through.
Sen. Chuck Schumer (pictured in the Capitol on Tuesday) will try to overcome a GOP filibuster on Wednesday and win a vote to codify abortion rights into federal law — but the effort is almost certainly dead on arrival, as Democrats haven’t have the votes to get them through the legislation
The new urgency of the push comes after a Supreme Court leak revealed a draft opinion that Roe v. Wade would fall. Pictured: Police watch anti-abortion protesters outside the Supreme Court building Tuesday, May 10
Since Manchin opposes the law, Democrats can’t even use the “nuclear option” to require just a simple majority of the vote, which is the only conceivable option to pass this abortion bill.
Many more progressive senators, such as Vermont’s independent Bernie Sanders and New York’s Democrat Kirsten Gillibrand, are repeating calls for the filibuster to end to protect Roe. But the issue was not discussed during the Democrats’ weekly luncheon on Tuesday.
While a Senate leader doesn’t typically bring a vote unless he believes there are votes to pass it, Schumer says it’s important for every senator to get on the record on abortion rights. He claims the proposal is “very simple”.
His team also thinks it’s important to show that Democrats are fighting for a woman’s ability to terminate her pregnancy.
‘[W]We’re making sure that … every senator has to vote and every American will see how they voted,” Schumer said, according to Punchbowl News. “And I believe that when the American people see this, the Republican Party, the MAGA Republican Party, will suffer the consequences in the election.”
Republicans are overwhelmingly opposed to abortion and believe that decision-making on the matter should go back to states so that laws can reflect voters and the values of different jurisdictions.
Large, unscalable fences were erected around the Supreme Court after last week’s leak, as anti-abortion and anti-abortion demonstrations became increasingly violent and threatening to Supreme Court justices
Pro-choice activists protest with Democratic Rep. Cori Bush outside the Supreme Court on Tuesday
On the other hand, Democrats are trying to play off a possible Roe vs. Wade overthrow as a blow to privacy, particularly between women and their healthcare providers. Many, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, have made skewed arguments claiming that gay marriage and birth control will be next.
The Women’s Health Protection Act is led by Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut. He told Punchbowl Tuesday that the legislation was critical because it would prevent states from legally challenging the 50-year status quo of abortion rights.
“Part of what Roe excludes are restrictions like allowing privileges, ultrasounds, mandatory waiting times that have been judicially violated [rights]but which states continue to exist,” the senator said.
Nevada Senator Jackie Rosen said Democrats must “take that fear” and “put it into action to defend our majority.”
“We’re not living in a hypothetical,” she added.
In recent years, red states have begun to introduce abortion restrictions — whether it’s abortion deadlines or preventing anyone from helping a woman seek an abortion.
These laws are almost always challenged and work their way through the court system.
The most recent, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, is a Mississippi case that would ban abortion at 15 weeks of pregnancy. This is the case that made its way to the Supreme Court and led to Conservative Justice Samuel Alito’s draft Opinion, Roe v. Wade would tip over completely.
Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts is the only Conservative of six to disagree with the Liberals, according to Politico’s leak earlier this month.
However, Roberts is out for the 15-week suspension.
With a 6-3 majority bench, the Conservatives can afford to lose to the Liberals on Justice and still prevail.
