Well, that escalated quickly, as they say.
Biden went from shooting down efforts to pass a nationwide abortion law with a filibuster exception to doing a full 180-degree turnaround and now supporting a nationwide abortion rights law by dropping the filibuster in a matter of days.
Perhaps the intensity from the Democratic Party base is so great that Biden had no choice but to start sounding like he was going to make sure everyone had the right to baby-killing no matter what state legislatures decide.
Will this actually happen? Several obstacles stand in the way, like a few Democratic Senators, for example, who aren’t on board with a special filibuster carve-out to codify the right to abortion into federal law:
President Joe Biden said on Thursday that he would support making an exception to the filibuster – the 60-vote threshold in the Senate needed to pass most legislation – in order to codify abortion rights and the right to privacy through legislation passed by Congress.
However, despite Biden’s newly announced support for the filibuster carveout, his best bet in doing so would be next year – and only if Democrats gain at least two Senate seats and hold the House of Representatives, an extremely tall task.
Asked about what executive action he would use to strengthen abortion rights following the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade last week, Biden said during a news conference in Madrid, “The most important thing … we have to change – I believe we have to codify Roe v. Wade in the law.”
Many abortion activists are upset that over the decades, Democrats never did anything when they had the chance at the federal level. During Obama’s two terms, Democrats could’ve passed a federal abortion rights law but they spent time ruining the nation’s healthcare system instead.
As it stands now, with a slim majority in the Senate that would not be able to overcome a Republican filibuster, it’s extremely unlikely it would even be attempted before the midterms, or that it would pass if it did.
The first hurdle would be getting Senators like Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema on board with changing the filibuster rules. Both have vowed that’s not going to happen. Not for Build Back Better, not for voting rights, and not for abortion either.
That leaves Biden in a safe spot of calling for the filibuster exception but not having to deliver on it. At least he now sounds like he’s talking tougher on the issue, something that progressive Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez has been clamoring for. AOC, for what it’s worth, wants to open abortion mills on federal land, another idea doomed before it left her sophomoric lips.
The very fact that Biden’s even talking this way means that Democrats feel like he already gave up on the issue so he’s trying to save face.
For some reason, Democrats on the coasts act like the Supreme Court ruling is somehow middle America telling them what to do. Quite the opposite is true, however, now middle America can decide for itself and the coastal elites can be left to abortion on demand in New York, California, and plenty of other states.
The moral question of ending human life, no matter the age, is not the same as passing regulations on oil drilling or deciding the merits of same-sex marriage.
If a pregnant woman is murdered, the killer can be charged with two crimes. How does federal law decide whether an unborn life is worth protecting in some cases and not in others? The disconnect is staggering but sadly not unexpected.
By the same token, blue states are to the point where, with regard to abortion, Democratic leaders won’t even admit there’s an unborn human child growing in the womb since they have dehumanized it. It’s a “fetus” or a clump of cells, nothing more.
Others vehemently and morally disagree on that question, and states should be allowed to determine that morality on their own. State legislatures and governors are directly responsible to the citizens in Alabama, Missouri, Texas, and elsewhere, for example.
Either way, Biden’s proposal to gut the filibuster is already dead thanks to his own party:
Key moderate Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona have expressed opposition to changing filibuster rules. And though Manchin is open to codifying Roe v. Wade legislatively, both senators oppose gutting the filibuster, their offices reiterated on Thursday.
Sinema’s office pointed to a Washington Post op-ed the senator wrote last year in which she argued that the filibuster has been used to protect abortion rights and block things like 20-week abortion bans.
Leftists hate Manchin and Sinema, but they shouldn’t. As Sinema stated in the excerpt above from her op-ed, when the shoe is on the other foot, liberals will appreciate the filibuster for stopping a nationwide abortion ban.
If Republicans take the House and Senate next year, they’ll simply use the same carve-out to undo whatever abortion rights bill Democrats passed before the midterms. It’s a dumb tit-for-tat that Democrats want to start.
The states can decide for now, and that’s the point of federalism. What’s acceptable in Oregon is not acceptable in Nebraska, and that’s OK.
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