Senate Democrats force token vote on abortion rights

The Democrats’ and pro-choicers’ nightmare seems set to materialize, according to a leaked draft Supreme Court decision: No more the 1973 ruling that recognized the constitutional right of women to obtain an abortion, setting a precedent in a country where the federal government does not provide a legislative framework on terminations of pregnancy.

The news, reported last week by the Politico website, caused an earthquake. However, it will be necessary to wait until the end of June or the beginning of July, four months before the mid-term elections, for the highest court in the country to render its final decision.

If the precedent is well and truly overturned, the choice of allowing, restricting or completely prohibiting abortion would be up to the States, twenty of which are already ready to ban it or restrict it in a significant way.

Furious, the Democrats are however powerless before a court with a conservative supermajority and a Senate that they barely control.

Theoretically, Congress could legislate to ensure the survival of Roe v. wade. The day after the publication of the document by the site Politico, the leader of the Democratic majority in the Senate, Chuck Schumer, moreover expressed his intention to submit to the vote of the Senate a bill which would recognize the right to abortion. in the whole country.

A vote on this legislation is not an abstract exercise. It’s as urgent and real as it getshe pleaded, lamenting a dark and troubling day for America.

” We will vote to protect women’s right to choose, and every American will see which side every senator stands on. »

Through press releases, declarations, tweets, television interviews and emails asking for funds, the other Democrats also quickly mounted the barricades to denounce a offensive against women’s rights.

The two pro-choice Republican senators, Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski, who each endorsed the nomination of two Supreme Court justices appointed by Donald Trump, also expressed their disappointment.

According to Politico, the three justices appointed by the former Republican president are among those in favor of the overthrow of Roe vs. Wade.

Such a reversal would be completely incompatible with what the judges [Neil] Gorsuch and [Brett] Kavanaugh said in their auditions and in our meetingsSenator Collins said in a statement.

When she explained her support for their respective appointments, she expressed her confidence that the two judges would respect the precedents established by the Court on this issue.

If the Supreme Court’s final decision goes in the direction indicated by the leaked preliminary version, this will shake my confidence in the courtsaid Senator Murkowski, who had given her approval to the appointment of judges Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett.

A doomed vote

In the absence of support, the announced vote will only have symbolic significance.

In theory, a bill can be adopted by the Senate with a simple majority of 51 votes at the end of the debates.

However, under the rules of the Senate, it is necessary, for the majority of the legislative texts, that 60 senators, that is to say three fifths of the elected officials, agree beforehand during a procedural vote to put an end to the debates and to pass to the vote.

By extension, this 60-vote rule, which can hinder the passage of bills even if they have the support of a majority, is referred to as a filibuster.

However, last February, an almost identical project authorizing abortion, entitled Law protecting the health of women and approved by the House of Representatives, had not crossed the threshold of 60 votes. Democrat Joe Manchin, considered a centrist, even joined 47 Republicans who blocked the bill, to which 46 Democrats had subscribed.

Senators Collins and Murkowski are proposing a bill authorizing abortion, on a more modest scale, for which the Democratic camp shows no appetite.

On the eve of the midterm elections in November, the Democratic initiative aims more to force Republican senators to commit, while a majority of Americans say they support abortion in all or most cases.

Quoted by the site The Hill, Democratic Senator Dick Durbin, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said senators would be called upon to to comment on certain aspects of the questionsuch as cases where women seeking an abortion have been victims of rape or incest.

Several bills passed or considered by Republican-led states, but not all, provide exceptions for these reasons or for risks posed to the health of the mother, for example.

Plea for the disappearance of the “filibuster”

Several Democratic elected officials and voters have therefore reiterated their call for Senate Democrats to do away with the filibuster, an option that has already been dubbed thenuclear option.

A strategy that finds supporters within the institution itself.

According to a compilation of washington post published last June, 21 senators, including Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and Amy Klobuchar, were then in favor of the elimination of this rule and 27 advocated a reform of this rule.

Several have returned to the charge in recent days, including Bernie Sanders, who pleaded his case on Twitter on Monday evening.

” Congress needs to pass a law that makes Roe vs. wade the law of the land […] NOW. And if there aren’t 60 votes in the Senate to do it, and there aren’t, we have to end the filibuster in order to get it through with 50 votes. »

The Senate only requires a simple majority to change its rules. An unattainable threshold in the current circumstances.

On the Republican side, Senators Collins and Murkowski, despite their support for abortion, are not ready to take this step.

And, most importantly, Democratic Senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema are fierce defenders of this rule. On Tuesday, the two senators considered moderate both reiterated their opposition to any change in this direction.

The filibuster is the only protection we have in a democracyargued the West Virginia senator.

Senate protections against eroding women’s access to health care have been used half a dozen times in the past decade, and are more important than everfor its part argued in a press release his colleague from Arizona, who is pro-choice.

According to the Axios website, a spokesperson for the senator explained that the current Senate rules have protected the right to abortion seven times, since bills aimed at restricting access have not crossed the threshold. of 60 votes.

A risky strategy

And even if the Senate renounced the filibuster, it is not certain that a bill legalizing abortion could go ahead, since the Democratic camp has two senators who claim to be pro-lifeJoe Manchin and Bob Casey.

In the highly unlikely event that Democrats go down this route anyway nuclearthe strategy would not be without risk for them in the future.

This is all the more true since, a few months before the ballot which will put a third of the seats in the Senate into play (and all the seats in the House of Representatives), the polls are not encouraging for the moment them.

Republicans not only seem on track to regain control of the House, but also have a chance to win back the Senate.

In the event of a double victory in Congress which would be followed by the return of a Republican to the White House after the 2024 election, they would therefore have even more freedom to implement a conservative program – which could even include the adoption of a law restricting abortion throughout the country.

Asked by USA TodaySenate Republican Minority Leader Mitch McConnell responded that a federal ban on abortion was possible.

According to washington poston the strength of their expected victory with the overthrow of Roe vs. wadeactivists and some elected Republicans have begun to mobilize in favor of possible federal legislation that would ban abortion after 15 or even 6 weeks of pregnancy.

If the success of such an initiative seems unlikely in the eyes of some observers, the new hobbyhorse of the opponents of abortion, now galvanized, shows that they do not intend to lay down their arms.

The Democrats intend to put the right to abortion at the center of the November ballot. On an issue that has so far mobilized Republican voters, they now hope that the news that had the effect of a bomb will allow them to mobilize a majority of voters.