Joe Manchin joins Republicans to defeat Women’s Health Protection Act in U.S. Senate

Leg­is­la­tion that would cod­i­fy Roe v. Wade into law has been blocked in the Unit­ed States Sen­ate thanks to the oppo­si­tion of the entire Sen­ate Repub­li­can cau­cus along with West Vir­gini­a’s Joe Manchin, who calls him­self a Demo­c­rat and belongs to the Sen­ate Demo­c­ra­t­ic cau­cus, but rarely behaves like a Democrat.

The bill, known as the Wom­en’s Health Pro­tec­tion Act, had been expect­ed to get fil­i­bus­tered. Demo­c­ra­t­ic Leader Chuck Schumer staged the vote any­way to put Repub­li­cans on record as opposed to repro­duc­tive rights. Even Sen­a­tors Lisa Murkows­ki and Susan Collins, who say they favor abor­tion care in some cir­cum­stances, vot­ed to block the bill, which just goes to show that they aren’t real­ly in favor of let­ting peo­ple make their own repro­duc­tive health decisions.

The roll call from the Pacif­ic North­west was as follows:

Vot­ing Yea for Repro­duc­tive Rights: Demo­c­ra­t­ic Sen­a­tors Pat­ty Mur­ray and Maria Cantwell (WA), Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley (OR), Jon Tester (MT)

Vot­ing Nay: Repub­li­can Sen­a­tors Jim Risch and Mike Crapo (ID), Lisa Murkows­ki and Dan Sul­li­van (AK), Steve Daines (MT)

A total of fifty-one sen­a­tors vot­ed against con­sid­er­ing the bill, while forty-nine vot­ed in favor. The fifty-one opposed were Manchin and every Republican.

The White House respond­ed to the vote prompt­ly by issu­ing a state­ment from Pres­i­dent Joe Biden express­ing his pro­found disappointment.

Said the President:

“Once again – as fun­da­men­tal rights are at risk at the Supreme Court – Sen­ate Repub­li­cans have blocked pas­sage of the Women’s Health Pro­tec­tion Act, a bill that affir­ma­tive­ly pro­tects access to repro­duc­tive health care. This fail­ure to act comes at a time when women’s con­sti­tu­tion­al rights are under unprece­dent­ed attack – and it runs counter to the will of the major­i­ty of Amer­i­can people.”

“Repub­li­cans in Con­gress – not one of whom vot­ed for this bill – have cho­sen to stand in the way of Amer­i­cans’ rights to make the most per­son­al deci­sions about their own bod­ies, fam­i­lies and lives,” the Pres­i­dent added.

“To pro­tect the right to choose, vot­ers need to elect more pro-choice sen­a­tors this Novem­ber, and return a pro-choice major­i­ty to the House. If they do, Con­gress can pass this bill in Jan­u­ary, and put it on my desk, so I can sign it into law.”

“The pro­tec­tions that the Women’s Health Pro­tec­tion Act would ensure are essen­tial to the health, safe­ty, and progress of our nation.”

“While this leg­is­la­tion did not pass today, my Admin­is­tra­tion will not stop fight­ing to pro­tect access to women’s repro­duc­tive care. We will con­tin­ue to defend women’s con­sti­tu­tion­al rights to make pri­vate repro­duc­tive choic­es as rec­og­nized in Roe v. Wade near­ly half a cen­tu­ry ago, and my Admin­is­tra­tion will con­tin­ue to explore the mea­sures and tools at our dis­pos­al to do just that.”

Vice Pres­i­dent Kamala Har­ris, who presided over the vote in the Sen­ate and announced the result, also relayed her unhap­pi­ness with the outcome.

“The major­i­ty of the Amer­i­can peo­ple believe in defend­ing a wom­an’s right, her choice to decide what hap­pens to her own body,” said the Vice President.

“And this vote clear­ly sug­gests that the Sen­ate is not where the major­i­ty of Amer­i­cans are on this issue,” she told reporters in remarks fol­low­ing the vote.

“It also makes clear that a pri­or­i­ty for all who care about this issue — a pri­or­i­ty should be to elect pro-choice lead­ers at the local, the state, and the fed­er­al lev­el, because what we are see­ing around this coun­try are extrem­ist Repub­li­can lead­ers who are seek­ing to crim­i­nal­ize and pun­ish women.”

“Repro­duc­tive rights will be on the bal­lot in Novem­ber,” vowed DNC Chair Jaime Har­ri­son. “The Repub­li­can Party’s extrem­ism knows no bounds. They’ve made clear a fed­er­al ban on abor­tion is on the table should they take pow­er. And across the coun­try, Repub­li­can state leg­is­la­tors are poised to weaponize the antic­i­pat­ed far-right Supreme Court deci­sion to threat­en access to birth con­trol and IVF, and even crim­i­nal­ize repro­duc­tive health care. This is what’s at stake.”

“The major­i­ty of Amer­i­cans oppose this extreme agen­da. Repub­li­cans can­not be allowed to impose their ultra-MAGA wish­list on our country.”

“We must elect more Democ­rats in Novem­ber in order to pro­tect the fun­da­men­tal rights of all Amer­i­cans. From now until Elec­tion Day, the Demo­c­ra­t­ic Nation­al Com­mit­tee will work to do just that. And we will hold every last MAGA Repub­li­can account­able for their all-out assault on women’s health and for their con­tin­ued efforts to strip away the rights of Americans.”

“Today, every sen­a­tor was pre­sent­ed with a choice: to defend Amer­i­cans’ right to pri­va­cy and abor­tion rights, or to put politi­cians in the exam room to dic­tate the repro­duc­tive deci­sions of America’s women,” said Sen­a­tor Jeff Merkley of Oregon.

“The choice was easy. As I cast my vote in sup­port of the Women’s Health Pro­tec­tion Act, I thought of patients and providers unset­tled by a near future where we could lose the abil­i­ty to make our most inti­mate deci­sions for our­selves. In just a few weeks, five unelect­ed and unac­count­able Supreme Court jus­tices are expect­ed to act as a super leg­is­la­ture to rob Amer­i­cans’ of our right to legal abor­tion and con­trol over our own bodies.”

“It’s hor­ri­fy­ing and out­ra­geous to all who believe in a free soci­ety and who reject gov­ern­ment encroach­ment into our per­son­al lives. Today’s vote is impor­tant because in our democ­ra­cy cit­i­zens need to know where we stand on impor­tant issues. I believe Ore­go­ni­ans and the Amer­i­can peo­ple do not want MAGA politi­cians telling sur­vivors of rape and incest that they must stay pregnant.”

“We do not want doc­tors to fear crim­i­nal pros­e­cu­tion for deliv­er­ing the care that pro­tects the health and life of their patients. Amer­i­cans do not want politi­cians and judges in our exam rooms and bedrooms.”

“It’s up to all of us who believe in free­dom and lib­er­ty from an over­reach­ing gov­ern­ment to cre­ate the polit­i­cal change that pre­vents this night­mare vision from becom­ing our real­i­ty. This week­end, Amer­i­cans will gath­er to speak out.”

“We are in a strug­gle with an extrem­ist minor­i­ty that wants to con­trol you and your life. I will nev­er give up the fight for pro­tect­ing and pro­mot­ing access to health care, includ­ing safe and legal abor­tion care.”

“Here’s my mes­sage to Repub­li­cans: women will not for­get your cru­el­ty,” said Sen­a­tor Pat­ty Mur­ray of Wash­ing­ton. “I ran for the Sen­ate because of the Supreme Court. I ran for the Sen­ate because I watched Ani­ta Hill’s tes­ti­mo­ny where it was plain as day that women’s voic­es weren’t being heard.”

“Where a woman was bom­bard­ed with offen­sive ques­tions — from a Com­mit­tee full of men— and then a man — who didn’t answer ques­tions on Roe v. Wade and who didn’t even both­er to lis­ten to Ms. Hill’s tes­ti­mo­ny — ascend­ed to the high­est court in the land to make deci­sions for women all across the country.”

“And we’re see­ing how that’s play­ing out right now. That just wasn’t okay with me. So I took the anger, the frus­tra­tion, the dri­ve that I felt — and I made it to the Unit­ed States Sen­ate. So mark my words: women won’t just remem­ber — they will be out in the streets, reg­is­ter­ing to vote, run­ning for office. They will be cease­less in their activism. I know because I was one of those women back in ’92. I’m a Sen­a­tor now: and I’m lead­ing this fight. We are going to make our voic­es and our votes heard — and we are going to win because there is no oth­er option.”