Biden Backs Filibuster Change to Restore Abortion Rights
(Bloomberg) -- President Joe Biden said he would support changing the Senate’s filibuster rules to make an exception for legislation ensuring privacy rights and access to abortion, calling the Supreme Court “destabilizing” for controversial decisions, including overturning Roe v. Wade.
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Under intensifying pressure from liberal Democrats to respond more forcefully to the court’s decision last week that ended the nationwide right to an abortion in place since 1973, Biden again said Thursday that Congress should pass legislation guaranteeing access to the procedure.
“If the filibuster gets in the way, it’s like voting rights, it should be we provide an exception for this,” Biden added in remarks at a news conference to conclude a NATO summit in Madrid. “Right to privacy, not just abortion rights, but yes, abortion rights.”
Read More: Why Democrats Probably Won’t Overturn Filibuster For Abortion Protection
The filibuster rule could be changed with a simple majority vote. But two key Democratic senators, Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona remain opposed to eliminating or carving out an exception to the Senate’s filibuster rule, which enables Republicans, who hold half the votes in the 100-seat chamber, to block most legislation they oppose.
“Senator Manchin’s position has not changed,” his spokeswoman, Sam Runyon, said.
Sinema’s spokeswoman, Hannah Hurley, also said the senator’s position is unchanged and referred to her previous statements.
Sinema, who supports abortion rights, has specifically argued that the filibuster has been used to protect rights in the past as one reason to keep it intact. If they are shorn of the 60-vote shackles, Republicans could simply repeal a law codifying Roe the next time they are in charge.
Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell warned last year Republicans could enact a “right to life of the unborn” if Democrats eliminated the 60-vote rule. On Thursday, he called Biden’s comments in Madrid “unmerited and dangerous.”
“He’s upset that the court said the people, through their elected representatives, will have a say on abortion policy,” McConnell said in a statement. That does not destabilize democracy -- it affirms it.”
Asked about how foreign leaders view the US political situation, Biden responded: “The one thing that has been destabilizing is the outrageous behavior of the Supreme Court of the United States in overruling not only Roe v. Wade, but essentially challenging the right to privacy.”
“We’ve been a leader in the world in terms of personal rights and privacy rights and it is a mistake, in my view, for the Supreme Court to do what it did,” he added.
Progressive stalwarts such as Senator Elizabeth Warren and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez want Biden to take dramatic action to ensure access to abortion across the country, even if it means court challenges and legislative battles that the White House would almost surely lose.
That means providing abortions to the public on federal property in states that ban the procedure -- a proposal the White House has dismissed as untenable. Progressives also want Biden to overhaul the Supreme Court, either by adding justices or imposing term limits on them or both, as well as curtailing the filibuster.
Read more: Progressives Demand Biden Rev Up Base With All-Out Abortion Push
Biden and White House officials have repeatedly stressed there’s little they can do unless more lawmakers who support abortion rights are elected to Congress.
(Updates with comments from Manchin, Sinema representatives in fifth, sixth paragraphs)
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