- Biden said the filibuster shouldn't get in the way of an abortion rights bill.
- But Manchin and Sinema oppose ending the filibuster, even though they support codifying Roe v. Wade.
- Republicans and Manchin oppose Democrats' abortion bill.
Democratic Senators Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona won't be supporting a carve-out to the filibuster to codify abortion rights, their offices said Thursday.
The comments come after President Joe Biden called for the Senate to remove the filibuster — meaning lowering to 51 the 60-vote threshhold otherwise to pass major legislation — in order to guarantee a national right to abortion.
Congress has been put in the driving seat to act on abortion after the Supreme Court on Friday overturned 50 years of precedent and stuck down Roe v. Wade, the 1973 ruling that made abortion legal nationwide.
Biden previously called for a similar, one-time exemption in the filibuster to pass a voting rights bill. Both Sinema and Manchin opposed it.
"Senator Manchin's position has not changed," said Sam Runyon, spokeswoman for the senator. Hannah Hurley, spokeswoman for Sinema, referred Insider to an op-ed in the Washington Post that the senator wrote last summer, in which she said that ending the filibuster in a future Congress might result in wiping out funding for reproductive services.
Sinema also released a statement after the Supreme Court overturned Roe saying that the filibuster had previoulsy protected abortion rights. Recent examples include votes that failed under then-President Donald Trump to make abortion illegal nationally after 20 weeks. The filibuster also prevented Republicans from blocking federal funding to Planned Parenthood.
Democrats don't have enough votes for abortion rights without the filibuster
Even without support from Manchin and Sinema, it's not clear that a filibuster carve-out would be the only barrier to codifying abortion rights.
Senate Democrats aside from Manchin have united behind the Women's Health Protection Act, which would legalize abortion in every state and invalidate most restrictions. But the bill failed twice in the Senate and only received 49 votes both times. To pass without the filibuster, it would need 50 votes in the Senate and another vote from Vice President Kamala Harris.
One possibility for passage would be for some Republicans to cross over on the filibuster and on the abortion rights bill. Democrats otherwise could compromise on which bill they're willing to support.
Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska both opposed the Women's Health Protection Act, even though they support abortion rights more broadly. They have similar legislation called the Reproductive Choice Act that would allow medical providers with moral or religious objections to abortion to opt out.
Collins is also working on a bipartisan abortion rights bill with Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia.
An abortion rights bill may have to wait until a future Congress, though Republicans are expected to win the House in November. Several Democratic candidates for Senate want to eliminate the filibuster, including John Fetterman in Pennsylvania, Mandela Barnes in Wisconsin, Tim Ryan in Ohio, and Val Demings in Florida.
"Democrats need to scrap the filibuster and immediately protect the right to an abortion. The stakes are too high and we have already waited too long," Fetterman said in a statement. "Send me to DC, and I will proudly cast that 51st vote to eliminate the filibuster and codify the right to an abortion into law."
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said in May that a national abortion ban from Republicans was "possible" but pledged he wouldn't do it through abolishing the filibuster.
His office did not reply to questions from Insider over whether Biden's comments changed his position. Instead, McConnell released a statement blasting Biden for saying during his remarks Thursday that the Supreme Court's "outragious behavior" was "destabilizing."
"Attacking a core American institution like the Supreme Court from the world stage is below the dignity of the President," McConnell said. "Beyond that, President Biden's attacks on the Court are unmerited and dangerous."
