In an interview with Wisconsin Public Radio on Tuesday, Vice President Kamala Harris said she supports changing a Senate rule to return nationwide access to abortions.
In addition to electing Democrats into the Senate, Harris said she wants the body to eliminate the filibuster for the purpose of allowing a vote on abortion rights to reach the 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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Currently, there are 51 members of the Senate who caucus with Democrats. It is widely expected that Democrats will lose hold of a 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, states expected to be won by former President Donald Trump. If the Senate ends up in a 50/50 tie, the vice president casts the tie-breaking vote.
Democrats would also have to gain back seats in the House and take the majority from Republicans.
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.
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What is the filibuster
Currently, most legislation 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, such as to federal positions and courts, now just require a simple majority.
