Voting for abortion rights is scheduled in the U.S. Senate next week, but probably won’t

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer will be forced to vote next week on a bill to codify abortion protection after it became known that the Supreme Court may be ready to overturn a landmark abortion rights ruling, he and other Senate Democrats said Thursday.

The effort looks largely symbolic. Democrats are significantly short of the 60 votes needed to pass the bill, and even lack the 50 votes needed to change Senate rules to lower that threshold.

However, Sumer of New York and other Democrats said they wanted to put every member of the House on the agenda after leak to Politico Earlier this week, a draft Supreme Court ruling shows that judges at least initially voted to dismiss the Rowe abortion rights case against Wade. The decision is not final and can be changed.

“We will have a vote next week,” Sumer said. “We’ll see where everyone stands … Once we get this vote, we’ll figure out how best to go from there.”

Sumer plans to hold a vote on May 11, he said.

Senate rejected a similar bill in February. West Virginia Democrat Joe Manchin III joined all Republicans present to win the procedural vote, 46-48. Manchin’s spokesman did not respond to a request for comment on Thursday.

The U.S. Senate will try the right to abortion again after announcing the draft opinion

Speaking to reporters Thursday, several Senate Democrats accused their Republican counterparts of focusing more on the escape of Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alit draft an opinion that overrides Roe than the consequences of an opinion.

“In fact, Republicans don’t care about women,” said Sen. Mazi Chiron of Hawaii.

Michigan Sen. Debbie Staben said the vote would force Republicans to take a stand on the issue instead of leaking.

Republicans have for years voiced opposition to abortion rights and, in particular, to Rowe’s decision. Public opinion is strongly in favor of keeping Rowe, as supporters of the decision outnumber opponents more than 2: 1 in a recent CNN poll.

“Next week they will not give up if they just say, ‘Let’s look there,'” Stabenov said. “They have to vote.”

Sumer promised that the vote would be just the beginning of action on the issue.

“We’re starting here, but you’ll hear a lot from us,” he said. “It’s not one vote, and then the issue will disappear.”

Overturn Roe would leave the state to determine own abortion policy. Many would ban this practiceeither through recently enacted laws, the ones that should come into force after Rowe’s repeal, or laws of the decade that were never repealed while federal protection was in effect.

In Wisconsin, for example, the abortion ban of 1849 is still in the format and will take effect if Rowe is repealed, Sen. Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin said Thursday.

“When I listened to Tammy talk about Wisconsin, I thought we always said they would take us back to the 50s,” said Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota. “They take us back to the 1850s.”

Sen. Maria Cantwell of Washington added that states with restricted abortion regimes will suffer a “brain drain” as qualified job seekers will look for work in states with more liberal reproductive rights laws.

The issue could be a problem for the private sector, as well as federal agencies such as NASA, which have a strong presence in states such as Florida and Texas that are considering or imposing abortion restrictions, she said.