Chuck Schumer Announces Date for Senate Abortion Vote
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 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 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. “It deals with one of the most personal and difficult decisions a woman ever has to make in her life.”
He insisted that bringing the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act to the Senate floor, after a similar measure failed in February, is “not an abstract exercise.” The House passed legislation promoting abortion in September.
The Democratic leader is hoping to put every single senator on record on the abortion issue 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.
Schumer noted that Republicans have been working for decades to bring about the end of Roe v. Wade.
“Come next week, Senate Republicans will have to answer for everything they’ve done over the years to embolden the hard right’s hostility against a woman’s choice,” Schumer said.
Republicans have long been focused on the Supreme Court, installing conservative justices intent on revisiting abortion and other social issues, including three confirmed during Donald Trump’s presidency to build the court’s solid 6-3 majority.
GOP lawmakers have called the rare leak of the draft opinion a brazen attempt to pressure the justices into changing the ruling.
Urging the justices to stick to their process, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell promised that senators would “have their backs, no matter what.”
The Western Journal has reviewed this Associated Press story and may have altered it prior to publication to ensure that it meets our editorial standards.
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