Democrats in the US Senate failed to get enough votes on Wednesday to push through a bill to protect abortion at the federal level. a right that the Supreme Court seems destined to eliminate In the next weeks.
The initiative was shipwrecked in a key vote, since the Democrats did not get the 60 supports necessary for it to begin being debated in the Senate.
With the Vice President of the United States, kamala harris, presiding over the session, the 50 Republicans voted en bloc against, while the Democrats one by one voted in favor while shouting: “aye!” (Yes). The only Democrat who broke ranks with his party was Joe Manchinthe last to vote and who left the scoreboard at 49 votes in favor and 51 against.
The vote took place in a climate of high tension after last week the “Politico” media published a draft of a US Supreme Court ruling that points to the revocation of the right to abortion that court enshrined in the historic ruling “Roe vs. Wade” in 1973.
The leak put Democrats on the defensive, as repealing Roe v. Wade would allow Republicans to restrict and even eliminate that right by passing legislation in state houses.
“Today’s vote is one of the most important that we will celebrate in decades,” said the leader of the Democrats in the Upper House, before the vote. Chuck Schumer. Schumer had promoted the vote with the aim of forcing senators to publicly position themselves despite the fact that he had little chance of succeeding.
Currently, the Senate is divided in half with 50 seats for the Republicans and 50 for the Democrats, who hold the majority thanks to the tiebreaker vote Harris, who serves as president of the Upper House.
Schumer insisted that there will be “real” and “immediate” consequences if the Supreme Court overturns “Roe v. Wade.” Specifically, if the Supreme Court strikes down abortion protection, 26 of the 50 US states will take steps to restrict it.
That would imply that approximately half of women of reproductive age of the United States, about 36 million, they would be left without access to that service in the territory where they live, according to calculations by Planned Parenthood, the largest network of reproductive health clinics in the United States.
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