Vice President Kamala Harris supports changing Senate rules to pass abortion legislation, she told a local Wisconsin radio station.
In an interview with Wisconsin Public Radio that aired Tuesday morning, Harris said she is in favor of nixing the filibuster — the 60-vote threshold for most legislation — in order to codify the abortion protections in Roe v. Wade.
“I think we should eliminate the filibuster for Roe, and get us to the point where 51 votes would be what we need to actually put back in law the protections for reproductive freedom and for the ability of every person and every woman to make decisions about their own body and not have their government tell them what to do,” Harris said.
Harris, the Democratic nominee for president, has made reproductive rights a central part of her campaign. She has repeatedly called for Congress to pass legislation that would restore the abortion rights once protected under Roe, which became moot in 2022 with the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision.
But passing such legislation would require 60 votes in the Senate. At present, Democrats control 51 seats in the Senate.
In 2022, President Joe Biden pushed to end the Senate filibuster in order to pass a voting rights bill. That effort was stifled by two members of the Democratic caucus: Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona and Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia. Both now identify as independents.
Both Sinema and Manchin retire this year, paving the way for Harris to rally the Democratic caucus around nixing the filibuster — if Democrats can maintain control of the Senate. At present, the Cook Political Report’s ratings of Senate races project Republicans to pick up two seats and retake control.
Harris’ push risks alienating two moderate Republicans who have shown interest in working with Democrats on abortion legislation: Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, and Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine. They were co-sponsors on the Reproductive Freedom for All Act, which would codify the protections in Roe. But both have expressed opposition to weakening the Senate filibuster to pass legislation.