A bill to legalize abortion across the United States stumbled in Parliament. President Joe Biden’s Democrats’ bill failed to get the 60 votes needed to pass the 100-member Senate.
As expected, the opposition of the Republican opposition proved very strong. The bill did not even get half the votes: 49 votes in favor and 51 against. Not only did all Republicans vote for the bill, but controversial Democrat Joe Manchin didn’t vote along with other Democrats. mansion has many times in the past thwarted his party.
It was a symbolic vote. “Unfortunately, the Senate has failed to stand up for the right that allows women to make decisions about their own bodies,” Vice President Kamala Harris said on the Senate premises afterwards. President Joe Biden put it this way: “Republicans choose to stand in the way of the right of American citizens to make the most personal decisions about their bodies, their families, and their lives.”
A number of Democratic lawmakers from the House of Representatives marched during the vote in the Capitol halls.
A law as proposed by Democrats would enshrine the right to abortion. They fear a US Supreme Court ruling in the coming weeks after a leak revealed that a majority of judges want to get rid of the famous Roe v. Wade ruling, which enshrined the right to abortion in the US.
If this also becomes the final decision, it will now be up to the US states themselves to decide whether abortion is permitted. Republican states are already in the process of banning or severely restricting this right.
The majority of Americans believe that abortion should remain legal in all or most circumstances.
Photo: Reuters
