WASHINGTON, D.C. – Around one year ago, the Supreme Court overturned the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling. It was a nearly 50 year decision that legalized abortion in the US. A year later, Senate republicans and democrats are still divided on the court’s decision.
“For 50 years Roe v. Wade protected our reproductive freedom and our right to make our own healthcare decisions for 50 years and then one year ago its suddenly gone,” said Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D- MI).
“So for us we are celebrating the Dobbs decision to bring America back where it was before: to be able to make that decision about the value of every single child,” said Sen. James Lankford (R- OK).
To mark the year anniversary of the Court’s decision, Senate democrats plan to put four pieces of abortion legislation on the floor: One, access to contraception and birth control; Two: guaranteeing women can travel freely across state lines for health care; Three, bolstering data privacy for online health and location data; Four, protecting doctors and medical professionals for continuing to provide abortion care.
We expect democrats to ask for a procedure of ‘unanimous consent’ on the legislation. Its a procedural step that allows any single senator to ask for a vote on the bill but any objection from a single republican lawmaker would result in the bills failure. It’s a quick way to force a vote on the issue.
“What the Dobbs decision essentially said was turn that decision back to the states which is what it should’ve been in the first place so Roe was a wrongly decided decision, Roe was 50 years ago and Dobbs made that wrong right,” said Sen. John Thune (R- SD).
“Republicans deep down want to ban abortions for everyone everywhere,” said Sen. Chuck Schumer (D- NY). “So that’s why this week our senators behind me will be asking consent on common sense legislation to protect women’s most fundamental rights.”
We expect all four of those measures to fail on the Senate floor.
