© Shawn Thew/EPA/BLoomberg/Getty ImagesSenator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN)
Speaking to CNN State Of The Union host Dana Bash, Klobuchar hammered the Texas "heartbeat" law, which bans most abortions at around six weeks and empowers private parties to sue those who "aid and abet" illegal abortion procedures, and suggested that the solution to stopping the law and similar laws was to enshrine Roe v Wade at the congressional level.
Klobuchar said:
"My solution to this — which is my solution for voting rights and so many other things, including climate change, where one side of the country is in flames and the other side of the country is flooded with people dying submerged in their cars — I believe we should abolish the filibuster."She derided the filibuster, which allows for the Senate to require 60 votes to pass bills, as an "archaic rule" that prevents them from "taking action" on important issues. Notably, Klobuchar is one of a number of Senate Democrats who have embraced making changes to the filibuster or outright eliminating it.
"The challenges that are facing our country right now — now and over the next years — we just will get nowhere if we keep this filibuster in place."
Last week, the Supreme Court refused to intervene to stop the Texas "heartbeat" law from taking effect. The law bans nearly all abortions once the earliest signs of a fetal heartbeat can be detected, specifically, the "cardiac activity or the steady and repetitive rhythmic contraction of the fetal heart within the gestational sac," notes The Texas Tribune.
Chief Justice John Roberts joined the liberal-leaning justices in voting to block the law on a preliminary basis. They lost 5-4.
Senator Bill Cassidy (R-LA), an opponent of abortion, accused Democrats of misunderstanding the high court's reasoning, according to POLITICO. "It was about if they had standing, nothing to do with constitutionality," said Cassidy, who also suggested Democrats were trying to "gin up their base" to distract from Afghanistan and other policies.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said Thursday that lawmakers will vote on the "Women's Health Protection Act" when they return for session. In a statement, Pelosi compared the Texas law's enforcement mechanism to a "vigilante bounty system."
According to National Review, the Democratic bill would "establish a federal right to abortion through all nine months of pregnancy if a single doctor asserted the abortion was necessary to protect the mental and emotional health of a woman seeking an abortion."
Even if the bill were to pass the Democrat-controlled House, however, it would still need ten Republican votes in the Senate to become law — all but a guarantee that it will fail.
Comment: The bench mark for senators has become exceedingly low.