For the second time, the Democratic Party failed in passing the touted abortion-without-limits bill, House Bill 3755 or Women's Health Protection Act, in the United States Senate on Wednesday.
CBS News said the procedural vote for HB 3755 failed at 49 to 51, with the latter vote composed of all Republicans and one Democrat in the person of Senator Joe Manchin. The vote was presided by Vice President Kamala Harris.
Pro-Abortion Democrats Face Another Defeat
Wednesday's vote exactly mirrors what took place last March during a procedural measure on HB 3755 when all Republican senators and Manchin blocked the legislation. At that time, the vote was 47-46 and short by 14 votes for a filibuster.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer pledged on May 5 that HB 3755 would finally be passed to secure women's rights to abortion in the face of the United States Supreme Court draft opinion leak, which intends to overturn the 1973 ruling on Roe v. Wade. Schumer even raised the stakes by putting a challenge on Republicans to choose between overturning Roe v. Wade or defending women's rights.
In response to the failed pledge, Schumer took to Twitter with his disappointment that the bill would now be shelved. The Senate majority leader claimed that the MAGA GOP wanted to remove women's rights by blocking the bill. The senator called Republicans "shameful" for allegedly wanting Americans to return to a time women were restricted in deciding on their bodies. He stressed they will not stop fighting back and underscored that voters "will remember this day" during the mid-term elections in November.
Also Read: Abortion 'Without Limitations' Bill Blocked By Republicans
President Joe Biden similarly had the same sentiments in a statement released within minutes after the Senate cast its votes on the bill, as per the National Public Radio. Biden condemned the failure of the bill's passing, which he said occurred at a time women's constitutional rights are being attacked. The president criticized it as an opposition to the will of the majority of the American people. Biden raised that his administration will continue to defend women's constitutional rights in line with Roe v. Wade. He disclosed that his administration intends to explore tools and measures at their disposal to do that.
The New York Magazine, on the other hand, highlighted that Schumer's intent for pushing the bill despite the obvious that it is doomed to fail was to placate the Democratic base. NY Magazine said that for the past two years the Democrats have shown weakness by failing to pass popular measures such as the minimum-wage bill and the Build Back Better budget reconciliation bill. The media outlet posed other possible reasons behind Schumer's actions are to change the losing political equation and to hold Republicans responsible for their unpopular views.
Democrats Attempted To Go Beyond Roe v. Wade
Meanwhile, in defense of those who voted against the bill, Republican United States Senator Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia raised in a statement on Wednesday evening that HB 3755 violated several laws, prompting her to vote against it. Capito clarified that there is no final decision yet from the Supreme Court on overturning its decision for Roe v. Wade and Casey v. Planned Parenthood. Yet, she said, the Democrats pushed for HB 3755 in an attempt to codify Roe v. Wade.
"This bill overrides all state and federal laws that exist on restrictions to abortions. This bill denies faith-based conscience protections under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993. This bill enables federal funding for abortion, yet the Hyde Amendment, which prohibits the use of federal funding to pay for abortion, was first passed in 1976. The bill also creates a right to an abortion at any point of the pregnancy. Many of these issues I have voted against repeatedly. Therefore, I voted 'no' today on this radical legislation, and I am not surprised that this effort failed," Capito said.
RELATED NEWS: US Senate To Codify Roe V. Wade On Wednesday In Light Of SCOTUS Leak
