President Joe Biden gave his strongest response yet to the U.S. Supreme Court’s radical decision to end federal abortion protections Thursday, endorsing a carve out from the filibuster for protecting abortion rights and the right to privacy.
"I believe we have to codify Roe v. Wade into law. And the way to do that is to make sure that the Congress votes to do that and if the filibuster gets in the way, it's like voting rights, it should be ... an exception ... to the filibuster for this action to deal with the Supreme Court decision," Biden said in remarks at a press conference in Madrid, Spain, where he is attending the NATO summit. He added that he would support making an exception to the filibuster to protect the right to privacy, which could extend existing protections for contraception and marriage equality Justice Clarence Thomas threatened in his concurrence on the abortion case.
Biden also gave his harshest criticism of the Supreme Court majority yet, calling the decision to take away the right to an abortion and threaten the right to privacy “outrageous” and “destabilizing.”
This puts pressure on the only Republican senators who support abortion rights, Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska. It would be an opportunity for Collins to wipe some of the egg off her face after she was forced to admit that she fell for the lies of Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh in supporting their confirmation. It also pressures Democratic Sens. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona and Joe Manchin of West Virginia. Sinema supports abortion rights, Manchin does not.
It takes 51 votes to break the filibuster, one of which can come from Vice President Kamala Harris. So it would only take two of those four to make this happen. The vehicle for it might be provided by the House, where Speaker Nancy Pelosi has promised upcoming votes to codify the right to an abortion, to protect personal data stored on reproductive health apps, and to ensure the right to free travel between states for obtaining an abortion.
Sign the petition to the US Senate: Reform the filibuster and protect our reproductive freedom!
Election law attorney Adam Bonin joins Daily Kos Elections’ The Downballot podcast to talk about what moves Democrats can make