US lawmakers to vote on creating a federal right to abortion after leaked draft overturning Roe v Wade
The US Senate will vote on legislation to codify the right to abortion into federal law, after a leaked draft of a Supreme Court opinion showed they would overturn Roe v Wade.
‘A vote on this legislation is not an abstract exercise, this is as urgent and real as it gets,’ Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat, said on the Senate floor on Tuesday.
‘We will vote to protect a woman’s right to choose and every American is going to see which side every senator stands.’
Schumer’s announcement came the morning after Politico published the Supreme Court’s initial draft majority opinion, which could change before the final version due out by this summer.
Schumer did not say when the Senate vote would take place.
The vote would be symbolic, as Democrats hold the majority in the Senate but only have half of the seats, far from the 60-vote supermajority needed to pass such a law.
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