United States President Joe Biden called on the Senate to end filibuster rules so that abortion rights can be passed into law, remarks that follow the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.
The Democrat's remarks on Thursday marked his support of suspending the Senate filibuster to codify the constitutional right to an abortion. Biden's comments represent critical support for suspending a key procedural hurdle that has so far prevented Senatorial Democrats from passing legislation that would make the decision federal law.
Codifying Roe v. Wade
Currently, Senate rules require the majority party to muster 60 votes to overcome the minority's attempt to block the advance of a bill, a procedural action known as a filibuster. While in Spain, Biden told reporters that he believes they should codify Roe v. Wade into law and noted that the way to do that was to make sure that Congress votes in support of it.
However, with the Senate being evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans, the GOP has so far been able to use the filibuster rule to stop the slim Democratic majority from approving abortion bills. Biden noted that there needed to be an exception to the filibuster, as per CNBC.
The president's statements come a week after the country's highest court overturned the nearly 50 years of legal precedent. They also mark the first time that the U.S. president has publicly supported changing the filibuster rules to pass legislation codifying Roe v. Wade into law.
The Supreme Court's controversial ruling last week now grants states the authority to pass their own abortion laws without worrying about running afoul of the Roe opinion. Some areas already had trigger laws in place in such a scenario that would automatically be enforced.
According to CNN, on the other hand, key moderate Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona have expressed their opposition to the idea of changing filibuster rules. And though Manchin was open to codifying Roe v. Wade legislatively, the two senators oppose gutting the filibuster, their offices said on Thursday.
Ending Filibuster Rules
Sinema's office said that the senator argued that the filibuster had been used to protect abortion rights and block things like 20-week abortion bans. Without the support of Manchin and Sinema, Democrats would need to sweep in the November midterm elections if they want a chance to approve abortion rights legislation in the future.
The second-highest-ranking Democrat in the Senate, Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin, said that in a 50-50 Senate, "the notion of changing the rules is really at the mercy of one of two senators who can make that decision for us."
Biden made his remarks while at a press conference at the NATO summit in Madrid and came after he initially supported keeping the Senate filibuster when he first entered office. The statements came after he was asked what executive action he could take to secure abortion access nationally. The president called on Congress to codify Roe shortly after the Supreme Court's ruling, an effort that ultimately failed, Fox News reported.
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