United States: This week on Tuesday, Kamala Harris, the nominee for the presidency from the Democratic side in November this year, stated that she supports reformation of something that at the moment takes a three-fifth Senate majority to allow the right to an abortion throughout the country.
State-Level Abortion Bans
After reading a Supreme Court decision in 2022 that sought to overturn Roe v. The most famous decision was the decision on abortion, known as Wade; in the United States, about twelve states restricted and prohibited abortion rights; it is an important topic in the year 2024 election, as reported by Reuters.
Harris hopes that Congress will enact a federal law providing for a safe abortion.
Sixty votes are needed to clear most legislation in the upper chamber at the moment. On Tuesday, in the interview, Harris affirmed that she seeks to reduce the voting requirement to a simple majority.
Filibuster Debate Intensifies
“We should eliminate the filibuster for Roe… to actually put back in law the protections for reproductive freedom, and for the ability of every person and every woman to make decisions about their own body,” she told Wisconsin Public Radio.
The Democrats got rid of the filibuster on lower court nominees in 2013, and a year later, the Republicans eliminated it on Supreme Court picks as well.
Opposition and Challenges Ahead
Some Democrats have suggested that the measure be eliminated altogether but have not done so yet, partly because two centrists, Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, who are against the move, will not return to the Senate in the next year, as reported by Reuters.