Democrats Schedule Votes on Abortion Access but Lack a Legislative Path – Democrats in Congress are preparing to vote this week on legislation that aims to maintain access to abortions in the post-Roe v. Wade era. They are under pressure to move quickly in reaction to the Supreme Court’s ruling upholding abortion rights.
In the evenly divided Senate, where there is strong Republican opposition, the bills are almost guaranteed to be defeated because they lack the necessary 60 votes to advance. However, Democrats are moving forward despite increased criticism from progressives in their ranks who were furious with the Supreme Court’s decision and angry that their leaders didn’t have a strategy to counter it.
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The House Democrats gathered on the steps of the Capitol across the street to sing “God Bless America” in celebration of the passage of a gun safety bill in the immediate aftermath of last month’s decision that overturned the nearly 50-year-old precedent that established abortion rights, as protesters gathered outside the Supreme Court demanding action.
The gesture was widely derided by activists on the left, who openly mocked the gesture and critiqued President Joe Biden and Congress for doing little to address a decision that had been anticipated for weeks.
Democrats on Capitol Hill are currently advancing a strategy intended to frame the topic for the midterm elections. Democrats are using the issue to lay out their positions to voters and paint Republicans as being out of line with the majority of Americans, who polls repeatedly indicate support abortion access, despite the fact that they lack the votes to force action.
The first measure would safeguard the freedom to travel for abortion services, and Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., hopes to put it to a vote this week. A second bill would explicitly grant health care providers the right to provide abortion services and their patients the right to obtain them, nullifying a number of restrictions that have been put in place.
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Amid worries that law enforcement officials would try to use the information to track pregnancies and impose abortion restrictions or bans, House Democrats also want to introduce additional legislation that would protect the privacy of patient health records in the coming weeks.
