WASHINGTON DC- Last Night, the Senate took a historic vote on the Women’s Health Protection Act (WHPA) (S.1975), which would provide a nationwide safeguard against abortion restrictions and bans. Like so many other policies our communities need, Senate Republicans stood in the way of this important legislation. With the Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization pending, advocates are raising the alarm and calling for structural democracy reforms to protect a person’s right to an abortion.
Fix Our Senate issued the following statement in response:
From the Supreme Court to state legislatures, abortion access is under attack. The Senate’s failure to pass the Women Health Protection Act because of anti-abortion Senators is a sober reminder that the freedom to decide if, when, and how to grow our families is being aggressively stripped away.
We need our democratic institutions to serve the needs of the people rather than arcane, anti-democratic rules and actors. The Senate must act as a majority to protect the will of the majority and the rights of all Americans. Our elected leaders must take bold steps to address the rotten structures of our democracy in order to secure abortion rights and voting rights. As long as the filibuster stands in the way of our right to vote,Congress’s ability to protect abortion access to is doomed to fail.
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Fix Our Senate is a campaign and coalition fighting for the broken Senate to be fixed so that the newly-elected government can get to work cleaning up President Trump’s messes and tackling the major challenges facing families, communities, and the country. Our highest priority is the elimination of the legislative filibuster, an outdated Senate rule that has been weaponized and abused by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell to block overwhelmingly popular legislation supported by a majority of elected senators.
Fix Our Senate coordinates work with allied organizations and advocates, serves as a resource for research and messaging guidance, communicates to key audiences directly and through the media, and uses any and all tools at our disposal to educate and persuade senators, candidates, and the public about the need for reform.
To sign up for Fix Our Senate’s mailing list, go to www.fixoursenate.org or simply email press@fixoursenate.org.