Last Wednesday, in response to the SCOTUS opinion leak on abortion rights, Democrats attempted to pass new legislation codifying Roe v. Wade and protecting individuals’ right to abortion. Such legislation would write a “constitutional right to abortion into federal law” (The Washington Post). For legislation to pass, the Senate needed to secure 60 votes. However, abortion advocates in Senate fell short with 51 Senators in opposition and 49 in support of the bill. Broken down, this opposition accounts for all 50 Republican Senators and 1 Democratic Senator, Joe Manchin. According to Manchin, legislation was too broad, allowing the expansion of abortion, rather than “simply codifying Roe” (NYT). While an unfortunate outcome for hopeful abortion activists, Senate Majority Leader Schumer and other Democrats also saw this bill as a call to action to mobilize voters amidst the upcoming midterm elections. Schumer explains, “Elect more pro-choice Democrats if you want to protect a woman’s freedom and right to choose.”
Amidst the leak, thousands of individuals across the nation have continued to rally for abortion rights, hopeful to increase voter engagement and protect women’s rights. As Alexis McGill Johnson, president of Planned Parenthood Action Fund, explained, “We will not back down, and we will not forget those who put politics over our health and rights.” The recent Senate vote demonstrates just how polarizing the Senate is and highlights how important these next midterm elections will be. Moreover, continuing to rally support will be a critical tool in order to persuade legislators and constituents of women’s right to abortions.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/05/14/dc-bans-off-our-bodies-protest/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/05/11/abortion-senate-vote/?itid=lk_inline_manual_16
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/05/11/us/abortion-roe-v-wade-senate-vote
https://www.nytimes.com/video/us/politics/100000008349850/abortion-rights-march-new-york.html
Questions:
What are your reactions to the recent Senate vote?
How do you think these rallies impact the current situation?
6 comments:
Personally, I am disappointed but not surprised by the outcome of the Senate vote. I think that it was a good idea, but never very realistic given the current nature of the Senate. I don't have much hope for legislation around access to abortions in the near future, so if Roe v. Wade is officially overturned, I think that we will just have to watch the states handle it. As for the rallies, I think that they may be effective in pushing for legislation, but I do not have much hope that they will change the outcome of the SCOTUS ruling. As we learned in class, the Supreme Court is supposed to be separate from public opinion, and should not make decisions that are influenced by rallies or from the American people. This makes it hard to argue that the rallies are actually going to create change in the SCOTUS. However, I do think that they may be more effective in COngress. Again, in class we learned that Congress is the branch that is most connected to the people, and I believe that if these efforts continue, then there may be some change in legislation. However, I am still hesitant because after looking at the outcome of the latest vote, I think it may be hard to reach 60 votes needed to codify the law.
I agree with Caitlin in saying that the outcome of the Senate vote is not surprising. Obviously we can not hold any expectation regarding the neutrality of politics, but it is still disappointing to see that health care and privacy rights don't present an exception to this truth. We have spoken a lot in this class about how political polarization has heightened exponentially in the past few years and has created a very unique, and frankly scary political atmosphere. Regarding abortion especially it seems that the Senate floor has become grounds for competition rather than compromise, without regard to American citizens whose lives are being changed in the process. Every day as I consume more media and news regarding the current state of abortion rights, it seems that there is more than one being fought. Citizens at rallies chant in favor of bodily autonomy and safe accessible health care whereas members of government push back with arguments regarding "God's will" and so called "legitimate rape."
I think the pro-choice rallies are great, and a legitimate exercise of fundamental rights, but I question whether the voices are being heard by ears susceptible to the message. If I were confident that members of Congress were dedicated to the good of the American people then I would have more faith in the effect of rallies, but since it seems that American citizens are only bystanders to the decisions regarding their own beings, I have to say that the activism is not having a significant effect on the matter.
Making it a constitutional amendment probably wasn't going to work and it was just done as power move to get the GOP on the record, but still, I'm surprised that it didn't even get above 50%. It'd completely bonkers to me that abortion rights have become so politicized since in the 70s even it was considered a women's health issue -- it was never supposed to be this bipartisan ordeal. It's terrible to me that it was used by the "Moral Majority" to mobalize christians into the Republican Party and now is affecting so many women who need it in order to continue to live healthy lives.
The senate outcome is not surprising at all, abortion is always going to be a heated topic and many times and what was proven in this vote was representatives vote with their party, with eh one exception being the single democrat who voted against. If the senate is not a majority democrat this is never going to pass. I think these rallies that are going across the country are beginning people together to fight for the right to abortion, this can create more young people to vote and perhaps change the majority in the senate but many young people do not vote. These rallies are not going to sway the SCOTUS decisions since they have life time appointments and they cannot be swayed by public opinion because of this
I think that it is interesting how Joe Manchin, a member of the Democratic party but who has broken with his party in party-line votes many times, continues to be a part of the Democratic party. A similar thing happened with Mitt Romney but from the opposite party. I feel like this connects to our polarized or sorted activity, showing how people naturally gravitated towards different parties based on their values, according to the sorted hypothesis. Now, because these politicians have values that differ from the bulk of their party, they are pressured to conform to their party and feel ostracized from it, so that they might sort themselves into the opposing party. The parties are meant to sort leaders by ideology, but sometimes politicians like Joe Manchin break this sorting, which causes great tumult for a Congress believed to have a solid Democratic majority to be able to pass legislation.
As others have said, I was not surprised by the recent Senate vote, due to the increase in political polarization over the past few years, and abortion transforming from a women’s rights issue to a political issue. I think these rallies do impact the current situation as they show the sheer number of supporters towards the women’s health issue of abortion. I agree with others in noting that the Women’s Health Protection Act was not realistic enough to be passed due to the political controversy surrounding abortion, however, it has succeeded in mobilizing voters to take a closer look at the issue and the number of rallies is evidence of that. With an actual threat from the draft decision over Roe v. Wade being overturned, however, voters and rallies are not enough to truly impact the current situation as lawmakers need to make a bipartisan plan, that has a high possibility of being passed and properly implemented.
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