Senate to vote next week on abortion rights

WASHINGTON — The Senate will vote next week on legislation that would codify abortion rights into federal law as Democrats mount their response to the Supreme Court’s leaked draft decision that would overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling.

The procedural vote, scheduled for Wednesday, will mostly be symbolic and once again show the limits of the Democratic majority in the 50-50 Senate. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., does not have the necessary 60 votes to overcome a Republican filibuster and move ahead with the bill, which means the effort is certain to fail. But he said members of both parties need to go on record about where they stand.

“Next week’s vote will be one of the most important we ever take,” Schumer said Thursday. “Because it deals with one of the most personal and difficult decisions a woman ever has to make in her life.”

He insisted that bringing a bill to the Senate floor, after a similar measure failed in February, is “not an abstract exercise.” The House passed legislation protecting abortion rights in September.

The Democratic leader is hoping to put every single member of his conference, as well as Republicans, on record on abortion rights as both parties deal with the political

fallout from the leaked draft opinion that would overturn the 1973 ruling that legalized abortion nationwide. A final ruling, in a case from Mississippi, is expected this summer.

Democratic leaders, lacking the support needed to change Senate rules and pass an abortion bill on a majority vote, have See

The Associated Press Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., left, and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., right, listen as Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, of N.Y., speaks Thursday during a news conference about next week’s vote to codify Roe v. Wade on Capitol Hill in Washington.