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A DEMOCRATIC DRIVE to make the right to abortion the law of the land failed in the US Senate on Wednesday after Republicans refused to allow a vote on the deeply polarizing issue.
The House-passed Women’s Health Protection Act would have created a federal statute ensuring access to terminations for patients nationwide — but all 50 Republicans and one of the 50 Democrats voted not to consider the legislation.
The vote was called last week by Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer after a leaked draft decision signalled the Supreme Court’s readiness to overturn the 1973 Roe v Wade decision.
It’s chances of passing were considered slim to none, given the blocking power of Republicans in an evenly divided 100-seat Senate where key legislation almost always faces a 60-vote threshold.
Republican-controlled states have taken steps to restrict abortion rights in recent months, given that overturning Roe v Wade would give states the ability to make their own laws on abortion.
Top congressional Democrat Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the House of Representatives, reiterated her outrage about the court’s upcoming likely decision, telling CBS News on Sunday that “the court has slapped women in the face in terms of disrespect for their judgments about the size and timing of their families.”
Senator Kirsten Gillibrand said “we will never give in” to Republican efforts to roll back abortion rights protections.
“We are half-citizens under this ruling,” she told CNN, referring to the draft opinion. “And if this is put into law, it changes the foundation of America.”
Several conservative states are already shifting.
The southern state of Mississippi will ban abortion except in cases of rape or incest, or danger to the life of the mother, Republican Governor Tate Reeves told NBC Sunday.
But looking forward, “we must prove that being pro-life is not just about anti-abortion,” Reeves said, by making sure expectant mothers and newborns have the resources they need.
Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said the Roe decision has sown division for decades because it “created a constitutional right that doesn’t exist in the written constitution.”
Now, he told Fox News, “finally elected officials have a say about life and the conditions of an abortion. I think that’s the way it should be.”
According to a poll released Friday by the Pew Research Center, about 61% of Americans believe abortion should remain legal in all or most circumstances.
But, as with so many other social issues, the gap between Democrats and Republicans is wide, and growing wider. Eight in 10 Democrats support abortion rights in all or most cases, more than double the 38% of Republicans who do, Pew said.
The republicans think rights not written in the constitution are wrong?
So in that case
No voting rights for women
No land ownership for women
No voting rights for blacks
No land ownership rights for blacks
No mixed race marriage
No same sex marriage
So if the republicans get their way the USA goes back hundreds of years, either that or they’ve read the handmaid’s tale and have decided to model the future of the country on it.
What a backwards country.
@Barry Somers: republicans now aren’t even republicans anymore. They used to espouse small government and economic reform and now they are Just a bunch of scaremongering zealots, preying on the fears/predjudices of the easily led. Obsessed with culture wars like going after disney and demonising the lgbt community, while anything that could actually improve the life of the average joe hanging on their every word is dismissed as ‘socialism’.
@Barry Somers: I gave up actual p0rn a few years ago and took up American politics instead, because it was slightly less depraved. I might switch back to p0rn.
@Barry Somers:
Most republicans are christian, while the bible details abortions, states life begins at first breath, our god kills his own son, pregnant women slaughtered, children disposed of, and so on. Our religion is pro-abortion.
Bible is also against mixed race marriages, with ex-president Harry Truman referencing the bible as to why he’s against it.
@Dean:
It doesn’t have much of a track record on anti-slavery messaging either.
@Barry Somers: Basically. The 19th Amendment gave women voting rights but you are spot on with the rest. The antis in the USA have always been linked to white nationalist evangelicals, bolstered in an alliance of convenience with the RCC. All five Justices voting for this are Catholic. This is just the start. The only good thing is America just as on guns will serve as a warning for Europe. Terrible price American women have to pay for that.
Ironically, the same religious right who fought so hard against Obamacare claiming government should keep its beak out of people’s health matters are now happy to have the full weight of government and the law shove its beak between women facing a crisis pregnancy and healthcare providers.
Taking bodily autonomy rights away based on gender is not a good look for a nation built on taking rights away from people based on skin colour.
The m0ronic inferno.
@Vonvonic:
Statistically, caucasian women in the US have less terminations. Riddle that one if you are a Republican.
There have been 4 posts today about women’s reproductive health and subsequent treatment on this platform.
Each one of those posts has an accompanying picture of an entitled male with his mouth open giving an opinion/apology/excuse/rant.
It’s annoying.
(And I’m not blaming the journal. The system is entitled male heavy)
I’m sick of it.
@Dearbhla O Reilly: don’t assume their gender. I’m led to believe men can get pregnant now
@Declan Edward: ahhhhhh listen dont start me……the world is gone nucking futs.
@Declan Edward: people can refer themselves to non human status now or a tree or a dog, the list goes on
Did linsey graham just say elected officials should have a say about life……what a p#1ck…politicos are not doctors or guardians of morality.no wonder politicians are the most despised profession…
I watched an interview on YouTube the other day, it was Amanpour talking to a guy called Frank Schaeffer who started the pro life movement in the 70’s in the US, none of the evangelical leaders wanted to support this until they realised they could use the issue to get donations! It was a very informative interview https://youtu.be/25JyC5Whhvc
Always worth noting that the 1 that voted against party, again, was Joe Manchin.
These people honestly….
One wonders the motivations for this Republican maneuvering
https://econofact.org/the-mystery-of-the-declining-u-s-birth-rate
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