WASHINGTON 鈥� Motivated by what appears to be an imminent threat to Roe v. Wade, the U.S. Senate is set to once again take up a long-shot bill that would codify abortion rights into federal law on Wednesday.
U.S. Sens. and of Texas are poised to vote against the bill.
鈥淚t is a radical abortion bill, which sadly reflects where Democrats today are,鈥� Cruz over the weekend.
The renewed urgency behind the vote comes a week after Politico on a leaked draft of a majority opinion overruling Roe v. Wade. The Supreme Court confirmed the authenticity of the draft but cautioned that it does not necessarily reflect a final vote. If the high court does take action to end Roe, Texas has a 鈥渢rigger law鈥� that would ban the procedure in the state.
To defeat a filibuster, a total of 60 Senate votes will be needed to move the bill to the floor, but Democrats are unlikely to garner even enough votes for a simple majority. At least one Democrat, U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, is signaling that he will vote against the bill, as will the few Republican senators who support abortion rights.
Democratic leaders say their priority is to put senators on the record on abortion, heading into the fall midterms.
鈥淓very American will see how every senator stands,鈥� said Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer of New York on Sunday, .
Cornyn and Cruz have made their anti-abortion stances central to their political careers over the years. But ahead for them if Roe is overturned 鈥� particularly if Republicans take control of the Senate next year 鈥� is whether they would support a federal ban on abortion rather than leaving the issue to be decided by state legislatures.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 think it鈥檚 really an appropriate topic for Congress to be passing a national law on,鈥� Cornyn said, .
Cruz was less clear on a federal ban, telling that 鈥渃ontested policy issues鈥� should be resolved through 鈥渄emocratically elected bodies.鈥�
鈥淚 have supported numerous federal bills, and I鈥檓 sure there will be more pieces of federal legislation that are considered,鈥� Cruz said.
In a sign of heightened tension surrounding the Politico revelations, Cornyn joined with Delaware Democratic Sen. Chris Coons to push for a bill that would provide family members of U.S. Supreme Court justices with increased security protection.
In September 2021, the House passed the Women鈥檚 Health Protection Act in reaction to the that went into effect on Sept. 1. That bill passed along party lines among Texas U.S. House members, with the exception of U.S. Rep. , a Laredo Democrat, who is the single anti-abortion member of his party in that chamber.
That bill on Feb. 28, with Cruz and Cornyn in opposition to the legislation.
