US Republicans block contentious Senate abortion rights vote
WASHINGTON: Senate Democrats were blocked in their attempt to enshrine abortion rights in federal law in a vote that highlighted both the deep divide on the politically explosive issue.
All Senate Republicans and one Democrat - Joe Manchin of West Virginia - voted to keep legislation ensuring nationwide access to abortions from reaching the Senate floor. The 49-51 vote was well below the 60 votes needed.
With the Supreme Court poised to overturn the landmark Roe v Wade decision that legalised abortion nationwide, Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer said he aimed to put all the chamber’s Republicans on record at a time when polls continue to show most voters want Roe to remain intact.
“Republicans are going to have to go on record as to whether they want this to be the first generation of American women with less freedom than their mothers,” Washington Senator Patty Murray, a member of Schumer’s leadership team, said.
Schumer set the vote as a signal to the Democratic Party’s core voters, who largely support abortion rights and could be motivated to turn out for the midterm election that will decide control of Congress for the remainder of President Joe Biden’s first term.
In a sign of how important the issue is for the party, vice-president Kamala Harris presided over the vote in her role as president of the Senate. And before the procedural vote, dozens of progressive House Democrats and aides marched across the Capitol before the vote to demand senators bring legislation to the floor.
Biden, in a statement after the bill was blocked, made a direct appeal to voters, asking them to elect more senators who will back abortion rights.
“If they do, Congress can pass this bill in January, and put it on my desk, so I can sign it into law,” he said.
But the abortion issue also animates the GOP base, and Republican senators have branded the Democratic legislation as radical and extreme.
The legislation at issue, introduced by Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, would establish a federal statutory right for doctors to provide abortion services and for patients to choose to have the procedure, without limitations or requirements such as specific tests or other medical procedures unless they’re required for comparable procedures. Health providers could sue on behalf of their staff or patients if there are any violations. It is backed by the Biden administration.
“Americans strongly oppose getting rid of Roe, and they will be paying close attention from now until November to Republicans who are responsible for its demise,” Schumer said on the Senate floor on Wednesday.