On Monday, the Senate failed to pass the Women’s Health Protection Act, a bill that would codify the right to an abortion guaranteed in Roe v. Wade ahead of a Supreme Court ruling that could limit access to the procedure nationwide.
The bill needed 60 votes to advance — and fell 14 votes short, with West Virginia Democrat Sen. Joe Manchin joining every present Senate Republican to vote against the measure.
The final vote was 46-48, with six Senators not voting or not present for the vote. The bill passed the House in September on a near party line vote.
The bill had 48 Democratic co-sponsors in the Senate, with Manchin and Pennsylvania Sen. Bob Casey being the only members of the Democratic caucus not sponsoring the bill. Casey voted in favor of proceeding to debate on the measure Monday night.
“Abortion is a fundamental right and women’s decisions over women’s healthcare belong to women, not to extremist right-wing legislators,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., told reporters ahead of the vote.
Schumer called it a “dark, dark time for women’s reproductive rights” nationwide, citing recent efforts by a number of states to restrict access to the procedure — including Texas, which has implemented a law which virtually bans all abortions after six weeks — and the Supreme Court’s looming decision which could change the precedent set in landmark abortion decisions Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey.
“It looks like the Supreme Court is close to drastically restricting this right in the coming months,” Schumer said on the Senate floor.
In December of last year, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which will decide on the constitutionality of Mississippi’s 15-week abortion ban. The case is the biggest challenge to abortion since the high court shifted to a 6-3 conservative majority under former President Donald Trump.
In a statement, White House press secretary Jen Psaki expressed the Biden administration’s disappointment that Republicans blocked consideration of the bill — without mentioning Manchin’s vote against advancing debate.
“At a time when women’s access to reproductive health care is under increased assault in states across the country, it is extremely disappointing that Senate Republicans blocked passage of the Women’s Health Protection Act, which would strengthen health care access and codify constitutional rights affirmed half a century ago by Roe v. Wade and in subsequent Supreme Court precedent,” Psaki wrote.
“Today, we mark six months since Texas law SB8 went into effect, brazenly violating Texans’ constitutional rights and empowering private citizens to act as bounty hunters against their neighbors,” she continued. “Now, a number of other states are also considering passing laws in open defiance of the U.S. Constitution, threatening the reproductive freedom of all Americans. These restrictions are particularly devastating for communities of color, rural Americans, and all those faced with fewer options and fewer resources.”
“As dangerous new laws proliferate in states across the country, the Biden-Harris Administration will continue to explore the measures and tools at our disposal to stand up for women’s equality,” Psaki concluded. “This is a moment for us to recommit to strengthening access to women’s health care, defend the constitutional right affirmed by Roe, and protect the freedom of all people to build their own future.”
Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal said that the vote will be “a rallying cry” for the midterm elections in November.
“This vote is going to awaken a lot of people, men and women, who grew up taking reproductive rights for granted,” Blumenthal said.
But Republicans characterized the bill as “extreme” — even among those who identify as pro-choice — and claimed that the bill goes beyond the precedents set in Roe and Casey.
Two of those Republican lawmakers — Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski and Maine Sen. Susan Collins — introduced a bill known as the Reproductive Choice Act on Monday, which would codify the decisions in Roe and Casey without going as far as the Women’s Health Protection Act does.
“I support the abortion rights established by Roe v. Wade and affirmed by Planned Parenthood v. Casey,” Collins wrote in a statement. “Our legislation would enshrine these important protections into law without undercutting statutes that have been in place for decades and provide basic conscience protections that are relied upon by health care providers who have religious objections to performing abortions.”
“I have always supported a woman’s right to choose,” Murkowski said, adding: “With the Supreme Court set to rule on an abortion-related case later this year, we should codify current protections into law so that women can be confident their reproductive freedoms will not be abruptly reduced or eliminated.”
“I have long supported a woman’s right to choose, but my position is not without limits, and this partisan Women’s Health Protection Act simply goes too far,” she continued. “It would broadly supersede state laws and infringe on Americans’ religious freedoms.”
A number of states already have so-called “trigger laws” in place, which would take effect if the Supreme Court moves to alter or overturn Roe. According to the Guttmacher Institute, a pro-choice think tank, 26 states are certain or likely to ban abortion if the Supreme Court overturns or guts Roe v. Wade.
Washington Sen. Patty Murray, a Democrat, told NBC News that Democrats will not give up on working to codify the right to an abortion.
“We’re not going to give up,” She said. We’re not going to go away. I don’t want to go back to the old days where abortions occurred unsafely, women died. I’m going to keep fighting and I want Americans fighting with us.”
