President Joe Biden said Thursday he would endorse suspending the Senate filibuster rule to codify rights to abortion and privacy in the nation through legislation passed by Congress.
According to the Brennan Center for Justice, a filibuster sets a 60-vote supermajority requirement for passing legislation in the Senate. The announcement comes at the heels of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision last Friday to overturn the landmark 1973 decision on Roe v. Wade which granted the constitutional right to abortion.
“We have to codify Roe v. Wade in the law, and the way to do that is to make sure the Congress votes to do that,” Biden said during a news conference in Madrid at the NATO summit. “And if the filibuster gets in the way, it’s like voting rights, we provide an exception for this or an exception to the filibuster for this action.”
Biden added he endorses suspending the filibuster to also guarantee the constitutional right to privacy, among other issues. Following the high court’s decision, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas wrote that other privacy-based rights should be examined, such as contraception, gay-sex, and same-sex marriage.
Democrats almost certainly lack the 60 votes needed to codify Roe in a 50-50 Senate, according to reporting by POLITICO.
Biden reaffirmed his stance on changing the filibuster rule in a tweet:
“We have to codify Roe vs. Wade into law. If the filibuster gets in the way, we should provide an exception to the filibuster to deal with the Supreme Court decision.”
Since the Supreme Court’s decision, Biden and other Democrats have emphasized that abortion is on November’s Midterm elections, urging the public to vote.
