Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA) said Thursday on MSNBC’s “José Díaz-Balart Reports” that there was a “groundswell of support” building for a federal law guaranteeing abortion access.
Guest-anchor Lindsey Reiser said, “There’s a piece of bipartisan legislation that you and your colleagues Sinema, Collins and Murkowski have introduced that would codify Roe v. Wade protections into law. But your other colleagues, Senators Blumenthal and Warren, say they will vote no because it doesn’t go far enough. How do you get this across the finish line.”
Kaine said, “Our goal was a very specific one, which is sort of use a time machine and return American law to where it was before Dobbs was decided, where people get a statutory right to reproductive freedom that was what the constitutional law was before Dobbs.”
He added, “Now, some don’t like that Constitutional law pre Dobbs. Obviously, the right wants to overturn it all, and some don’t think it goes far enough. Our goal was to show that there is a bipartisan majority in the Senate that wants to codify Roe. We can have a good faith discussion about the best way to do that. But earlier votes on the Women’s Health Protection plan only got 49 votes. I thought it was not a good thing to send a message that there wasn’t even a majority of the Senate willing to codify Roe. We’ve shown there’s a different path that’s bipartisan. And we’ve demonstrated there’s a majority to do it. I think we’re ultimately going to get there on a bill to create a statutory guarantee because the post-Dobbs reality of 10-year-olds getting smuggled across lines to get an abortion following a rape and the powerful referendum in Kansas and other states. I think that post-Dobbs reality is creating a groundswell of support for a federal statutory guarantee.”
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN
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