Vice President Kamala Harris said she supports changing the Senate filibuster rule to return nationwide access to abortions.
In an interview with Wisconsin Public Radio on Tuesday, Harris said the elimination of the rule would allow a vote on abortion rights to reach the Senate floor.
Under Harris' proposal, lawmakers would codify the ruling made in Roe v. Wade, which essentially required states to allow access to abortions until a fetus is viable. Generally, states were barred from regulating abortions for the first 20 weeks of a pregnancy prior to a 2022 Supreme Court decision that overturned Roe v. Wade. The ruling allowed numerous Republican-held states to enact near or total abortion bans.
"While the presidential election is extremely important and dispositive of where we go moving forward, it also is about what we need to do to hold onto the Senate and win seats in the House," Harris said. "That being said, I've been very clear, I think 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 and not have their government tell them what to do.”
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For Harris' proposal to become a reality, Democrats would need to maintain control of the Senate.
Currently, there are 51 members of the Senate who caucus with Democrats. However, it is widely expected that Democrats will lose the seat held by Sen. Joe Manchin in West Virginia, who has long resisted changes to the filibuster.
Republicans are also hoping to take seats from Democrats in Montana and Ohio. If the Senate ends up in a 50/50 tie, the vice president casts the tie-breaking vote.
Although several Republican senators, such as Sen. Lisa Murkowski, have expressed support for codifying abortion rights, they have opposed eliminating the Senate filibuster to do so.
Democrats would also have to gain back seats in the House and take the majority from Republicans if this proposal were to reach the president's desk.
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What is the filibuster?
Currently, most legislation in the Senate requires 60 votes to end debate and bring an issue to vote. But there have been changes over the years that have loosened those rules.
For instance, presidential nominations to federal positions and courts now require a simple majority.
