Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema shot down President Joe Biden’s call for a filibuster carveout to protect abortion rights, Reuters reports.
Biden, who has been under pressure from Democrats to act in response to the Supreme Court ruling overturning federal abortion protections, on Thursday called for the Senate to temporarily lift the filibuster to pass a bill codifying those protections into law.
“I believe we have to codify Roe v. Wade into law. And the way to do that is to make sure that Congress votes to do that,” he said during a news conference in Madrid. And if the filibuster gets in the way — it’s like voting rights — it should be we provide an exception for this — an exception to the filibuster for this action to deal with the Supreme Court decision.”
Sinema, Manchin unmoved:
Though Manchin and Sinema were both critical of the Supreme Court ruling, both senators were unmoved by the decision.
A spokesman for Manchin and an aide to Sinema both told Reuters that the senators have not changed their mind on protecting abortion rights.
Pressure mounts:
"There has been pressure building up to act and show that we are doing more," an administration source told Reuters. "The president has always believed something must be done."
The White House plans to issue several executive actions on abortion rights, vowing to protect medical abortion and the right of women to cross state lines to get the procedure.
The White House has signaled that it does not plan to take up other more aggressive proposals, like allowing abortions on federal land in states where the procedure is banned.
