Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) recently argued in favor of enshrining abortion rights into law at the federal level. During an appearance with host Kristen Welker on CBS’ “Meet the Press,” he discussed the abortion issue and insisted that President Joe Biden must be reelected to ensure that Congress passes legislation to allow the federal government to dictate policy regarding the procedure.
During the interview, Welker brought up Arizona, calling it “effectively ground zero for the national fight over abortion rights” and asked whether the state’s repeal of an 1864 abortion law “minimizes the urgency that some voters will feel to get out and vote for Democrats.”
Kelly responded, arguing for federal legislation to codify so-called abortion rights.
“I think women in Arizona have been through a really tough time, and it all goes back to Donald Trump’s election and what he said he wants to do to Roe v Wade. He recently said he broke it. This is all on him, that women in the state of Arizona don’t have the rights that they previously had. Women cannot get the health care they need in the state right now. We have an opportunity in November to fix this at the state level with a ballot initiative. What we really need is national legislation to codify a women’s rights to make these decisions. That’s only going to happen and get signed in the law if Joe Biden is reelected President.”
Welker asked if Kelly would favor doing away with the filibuster to enshrine Roe v. Wade into law. Kelly affirmed that he would.
“Yeah, I would. When we were looking at voting rights legislation, I voted for that as well. I spent 15 years at NASA flying the space shuttle. If NASA had the rules of the United States Senate, the rocket ship would never leave the launch pad. So at times, at the appropriate time, I think this is one of them, I would consider changing those rules to make sure that women can get the health care they need.”
The conversation over codifying Roe at the federal level emerged just after the Supreme Court overturned the landmark abortion ruling in 2022. Democrats attempted to hold a vote to break the filibuster to legalize abortion nationally.
Reports say that Democrats had brought an attempt to break the filibuster so they can bring Roe v Wade to the floor in order to codify it into law. Their end goal was to legalize abortion nationwide up until birth with what would be no limits. As you can imagine, every single Republican voted against this and they were joined by none other than West Virginia Democrat Joe Manchin who had indicated that he’d vote against it earlier in the day.
This resulted in Democrats being 11 votes shy of what they needed to pass Roe into law.
President Biden vowed to push this effort if voters gave Democrats control of both chambers of Congress.
On Tuesday, Biden will give a speech to the DNC in which he’ll pledge to codify abortion rights soon after the next Congress convenes, provided he has comfortable majorities in both the House and Senate:
“He will say that if the American people elect more Democratic Senators in November and keep the House Democratic, the first bill he will send to the next Congress will be to codify Roe – and he will sign it around the 50th anniversary of the Roe decision,” a Democratic official told The Hill ahead of the speech.
The Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision was on Jan. 22, 1973 and the 50th anniversary would be just days after a new Congress is sworn in.
“President Biden will speak about the choice that voters face this November between Republicans who want to a national abortion ban that would criminalize doctors for performing care, and Democrats who want to codify Roe into law to protect women’s reproductive freedom,” the official said.
Abortion is expected to be a crucial issue in the 2024 elections.
