Bernie: Congress Must Codify Roe v. Wade 'NOW'

[Nanjeanne]

146. This has been something Democrats have talked about, tried to do but just not with the urgency as

needed now.

Some context:

Of course I remember Barack Obama campaigning with the promise to Planned Parenthood that “the first thing I’d do as president” would be to codify Roe v. Wade by singing the Freedom of Choice Act, but then in 2009 he said it was not his “highest legislative priority.” And of course the Democrats lost the majority in Congress in the 2010 midterms, and it fell through into the cracks then as well. Such a shame.

More recently, Democrats introduced the Women’s Health Protection Act in Congress. In 2019 and again in 2021. It did not pass the 60 vote filibster threshhold unfortunately. The federal bill “guarantees a pregnant person’s right to access an abortion — and the right of an abortion provider to deliver these abortion services — free from medically unnecessary restrictions that interfere with a patient’s individual choice or the provider-patient relationship.” Senators Bernie Sanders, Kamala Harris, Warren, and Booker all co-sponsored the bill, and Harris went further, outlining a plan that would require states and localities with a history of passing abortion restrictions that undermine Roe v. Wade to obtain federal approval before new measures can take effect.