The Senate voted March 12 on the Women’s Health Protection Act, a Democrat-led bill that would effectively codify abortion into federal law and would remove conscience protections for pro-life Christian medical professionals.

As predicted, the measure failed in the 50-50 Senate with a 49-51 vote. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said he wanted to push the vote forward because it would allow “the American people will see where every single U.S. Senator stands.”

But some Democrats, like Executive Director of Democrats For Life of America Kristen Day, believe that Schumer’s decision to force a vote was a “huge mistake.”

“He thinks he’s motivating his base, which maybe he is, but he already has that base,” she told Fox News. “So who is he trying to reach? Because he’s alienating people like me with doubling down on this extreme abortion policy that goes further than Roe. It’s like Roe on steroids. It basically eliminates all health and safety regulations across the nation.”

Heritage Foundation religion policy analyst Melanie Israel pointed out that by voting in favor of the Women’s Health Protection Act, senators voted to ignore the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993, which was ironically introduced by Schumer in March 1993.

“The Women’s Health Protection Act says it would supersede other federal and state law, imperiling longstanding policies [that] … have provided meaningful protections for individuals and health care entities who don’t want to perform, provide, pay for or refer for abortions,” she said. 

Since last week’s leaked Supreme Court decision draft suggesting the high court will overturn Roe v. Wade, progressives have renewed their call to remove the Senate filibuster, which requires 60 votes to stop debate on a bill. If the filibuster were to be scraped, only a simple majority would be needed to pass bills. But this is unlikely to happen as two Democratic senators, Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, have signaled they oppose the removal of the filibuster.

 

Above: Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, flanked by Sen. Debbie Stabenow (left) and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (right), holds a news conference on May 5 to announce the Senate will vote on the Women’s Health Protection Act of 2022.

 

Article updated May 12, 8:45 a.m.

Photo: Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call/Newscom