Troublemaker with the Democrats
US senators block abortion law
05/11/2022 11:43 p.m
The vote was primarily symbolic in nature, but US President Biden is still bitterly upset by the result. Its Democrats are unable to unite in the Senate behind a bill on abortion rights. Now it’s up to the voters.
As expected, the US Senate Democrats have failed in their attempt to secure the right to abortion with a federal law. Republicans blocked a vote on the bill using a more than 100-year-old rule – the so-called filibuster. The rule states that for many bills, 60 of the 100 senators must agree to an end to the debate before there can be a vote at all. A success of the Democrats was not expected – the vote was primarily symbolic in nature.
There is no federal law in the United States that allows or prohibits abortion. However, abortions are permitted at least until the fetus is viable – today around the 24th week. The basis for this is a judgment by the US Supreme Court from 1973. At the beginning of May, the magazine “Politico” published the draft of the reasoning for the Supreme Court’s judgement. It shows that the US Supreme Court is about to overturn the country’s liberal abortion laws. In the absence of federal legislation, the states would have jurisdiction. Numerous conservative-governed states want to largely ban abortion.
The US Democrats have a razor-thin majority in the Senate. But not even that stood: all Republicans voted against the end of the debate. Democrat Joe Manchin joined them in a vote of 51 to 49. Manchin had already blocked numerous reform plans by US President Joe Biden in the past.
The Republicans in Congress would obstruct the right of Americans to make the most personal decisions about their own bodies, their families and their lives, Biden reacted to the vote. He urged voters to consider this in November’s congressional elections. “If they do that, Congress can pass this legislation in January and put it on my desk for me to sign,” Biden said.