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Senate Republicans block Democratic bill codifying Roe v. Wade abortion protections (www.nbcnews.com)

submitted 4 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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The legislation, which states that “protections for access to abortion rights ... should be supported," was blocked by Republicans who panned it as a "show vote."

Senate Republicans on Wednesday blocked legislation led by Democrats to revive the protections of Roe v. Wade in the wake of the Supreme Court eliminating the nationwide right to abortion.

The vote was 49-44, falling short of the super-majority needed to defeat a filibuster due to broad opposition from Republicans, who dismissed it as a political stunt.

The Reproductive Freedom for Women Act, introduced last month around the second anniversary of the court decision that overturned Roe v. Wade, is just a few sentences long. It states that “protections for access to abortion rights and other reproductive health care” after the 2022 ruling “should be supported.” It adds that “the protections enshrined in* Roe v. Wade ...* should be restored and built upon, moving towards a future where there is reproductive freedom for all.”

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

My first reaction was "Why wasn't this done when the decision was first leaked? Why wait 2 years?"

The Reproductive Freedom for Women Act [...] is just a few sentences long. It states that “protections for access to abortion rights and other reproductive health care” [...] “should be supported.” It adds that “the protections enshrined in Roe v. Wade ... should be restored and built upon, moving towards a future where there is reproductive freedom for all.”

That's not the language of writing laws. It's completely vague and unenforceable. It really is just a political stunt for an election year.

Why is it so hard to make a real law to actually do this!?

[–] [email protected] 34 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

My first reaction was “Why wasn’t this done when the decision was first leaked? Why wait 2 years?”

They didn't:

In the wake of a bombshell leak last week of a Supreme Court draft opinion indicating the court's conservative majority could soon overturn Roe v. Wade, Senate Democrats on Wednesday forced a vote to advance a bill that would enshrine abortion rights into federal law.

And here's the text, which is notably more specific.

Furthermore, they also tried to pass a bill before the Dobbs ruling.

In fact, some of them have been trying since 1989.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Well, that makes me feel a little better.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 4 months ago

Yeah the history of this is long and complicated. This piece goes into a lot more detail about the various attempts on both sides to put abortion into federal legislation (both for and against), including a review of the political situations that led to and resulted from each effort. One of the more interesting threads is this one:

After [Joe] Biden joined the Senate in 1973, he voted for a failed constitutional amendment that would have allowed states to overturn the court’s Roe ruling. In a Washingtonian magazine interview at the time, he said of Roe: “I think it went too far. I don’t think that a woman has the sole right to say what should happen to her body.” But times changed, and so did he. In a 2007 book, Biden said he had arrived at a “middle-of-the-road position on abortion.” In 2008, he described Roe as “close to a consensus that can exist in a society as heterogeneous as ours.” As Obama’s vice president, Biden said the government had no “right to tell other people that women, they can’t control their own body.”

The cultural center of gravity on this issue has changed dramatically since the 1970s. There were pro choice voices in both parties for many decades, but with very few exceptions those voices have migrated into the Democratic Party, which gives it a more unified and consistent stance on the issue.